Allan takes off in Nissan’s GT-R supercar – his destination; the world-famous Chateau at Tongariro.

Around 16 years ago, I found myself at the wheel of a 1966 Prince Skyline 2000GT-A, one of the first of the truly hot Skylines. By today’s high-performance standards, the 2000GT-A wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows and yet, in mildly modified race-spec, this type of Skyline dominated the Japanese racing scene of the mid ’60s. Indeed, the Skyline GT’s development programme would eventually lead to the semi-legendary R380. Powered by a twin-cam, 24-valve version of the Skyline GT’s straight-six, the R380 was capable of reaching a maximum speed of 280kph (174mph).

However, even as Prince worked to develop its new sports racer, fate stepped in and, in late 1966, Prince merged with Nissan. The next evolution of the R380 – the R380-II – would carry Nissan badges when it appeared at the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix, which at that time was not a genuine, FIA-sanctioned F1 event. Later, the R380-III would also be developed by Nissan. The R380-III was intended to run with a new, quad-cam V12, but initially Chevrolet V8s were used until Nissan finalized its V12.

When the 5.9-litre V12-powered version finally came together, the car was renamed R382 – and with around 447kW at its disposal, the R382 was supposedly capable of attaining a top speed of around 350kph.

Birth of the Skyline GT-R

Fortunately for petrol-heads everywhere, Nissan knew it was onto a good thing when it inherited Prince’s Skyline, and in 1966 it released the 2000GT-A – oddly enough still badged as a Prince – and it was that model I drove back in 1994 (see NZCC, December 1994).

From that point on Prince’s obvious contribution to future Skylines began to diminish, although Nissan kept the name-plate. In 1969 it released its first high-performance version, the first Skyline to be badged as a GT-R. Nissan would further develop the GT-R through several series up to 1974, before temporarily dropping the designation until 1989. By that time, although retaining the Skyline’s traditional six-cylinder motor, the Skyline GT-R eventually emerged as a twin-turbocharged, all-wheel drive supercar-eating sports saloon – and, of course, it picked up its colourful Godzilla moniker.

The R35 GT-R

The first public sign that Nissan was planning to re-invent its GT-R came at the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show, where it presented an all-new GT-R concept car. Again at Tokyo, this time in 2005, it unveiled the GT-R Proto – announcing this would form the basis for the production GT-R, which would eventually debut in 2007.

Since its launch in 2008, Nissan has sent a GT-R to the infamous Nürburgring, where the car clocked up a shattering 7.29-second lap – quicker than a Porsche Carrera GT and a Ferrari F430 F1. At the time it set that lap, the only production car with a quicker lap record was the Pagani Zonda F.

Predictably, the GT-R’s Nürburgring exploits sent ripples of controversy throughout the known motoring world, and it wouldn’t be too long before everyone was scrabbling to best the GT-R’s time.

Of course there are faster, better-handling cars than the Nissan GT-R – but just look at their entry price. In New Zealand the Zonda F, for example, would be around five times the price of the GT-R – no prizes for guessing which car delivers the best bang for your buck.

PlayStation For Real

Partly due to its supercar performance – the GT-R can triple New Zealand’s national speed limit – and partly due to that episode at the Nürburgring, there has probably been more column centimetres written about the Nissan GT-R (note – the Skyline name has now been dropped altogether) than any recent car, so I don’t intend to add too much.

I’ll just point out that the GT-R is built to extremely exacting standards – GT-R V6 engines, for instance, are hand-assembled in a dust-free environment, with only eight men qualified to handle the task. And don’t place too much reliance on Nissan’s quoted power output figures – nominally, the GT-R’s 3.8-litre V6 pumps out 353kW, but some punctilious testers have recorded as much as 387kW.

The GT-R’s rear-mounted, six-speed, dual-clutch transmission is also hand-built – with each gearbox carefully mated to the right engine. Reputedly, you can’t mix ’n’ match GT-R engines and transmissions.

If that all appears a bit too much like technological overkill, your face will probably take on a paler shade when you climb into the GT-R and crank it into life. Although there are rows of  buttons and switches for virtually everything, the first thing most will notice is the novel, interchangeable centre gauge cluster. Rather than fitting a bunch of boring old analogue gauges, Nissan has gone the whole hog with a fully digital display – and then allowed the driver to switch it through a variety of modes. Everything from standard engine operation to fuel efficiency, gear position, acceleration and braking forces plus a g-meter is included. It’s PlayStation come to life – so perhaps it’s not too surprising that Nissan developed the GT-R’s onboard display system in conjunction with Polyphony Digital, the people behind the popular GranTurismo game.

It’s all very impressive, but it can be a little distracting trying to check the amount of g-force you’re generating while cornering!

Light the Blue Touch Paper

With all the technology out of the way, it was a relief to settle back into the GT-R’s driving seat, start her up and make tracks for my destination – the Bayview Chateau Tongariro, which had kindly agreed to put me up for the night.

Following a quick briefing from Mike Gilmour at City Nissan, I decided to keep the GT-R’s gearbox in auto-mode during the trip across Auckland, leaving the manual, paddle-shift mode for the drive to Tongariro.

Although surprisingly easy to drive, the GT-R’s performance potential was always lurking beneath our steady progress out of the city. Only a gentle squeeze on the throttle was sufficient to prod that hand-built V6 into life. Give the GT-R its head and it simply launched itself towards the horizon at a dizzying rate – if anything, the Nissan’s acceleration was even more brutal than that of the Aston Martin DBS V12 I sampled last year.

Fortunately, the GT-R’s power is matched to an extremely competent chassis, which means that cornering grip is considerable – helped, of course, by the Nissan’s battery of on-board driving aids.

And while the GT-R’s steering did feel a little wooden at the straight ahead position, it livened up under cornering, proving to be both precise and nimble.

R-Mode

It was now time to check out the driver selectable suspension settings – Comfy, Normal/ Sport and R-Mode. I’d assume that ‘R’ stands for Race. After a little experimentation, I figured out some new names for the settings – hard, very hard and extremely hard. I suppose you have to offset that against the GT-R’s ability to remain as flat as the proverbial board even under very spirited cornering, but over broken inner-city streets the GT-R is best kept on Comfy mode, and even that could potentially whip your early morning flat-white into a frothy cappuccino.

During the drive down to Tongariro I resisted the urge to turn off the traction control, instead restricting myself to sampling R-Mode. This would be the one for very enthusiastic drivers, allowing the GT-R to slip its tail out under hard cornering just enough to provide some additional thrills.

Not that you really need extra thrills – out on the open road, with rather more speed on board, the previously lumpy ride becomes much smoother and as you pile on the speed the GT-R quite literally comes alive in your hands. Sure, you could use a GT-R as your everyday car, but if your daily trip to work is restricted to the inner city, why would you want to waste its potential so needlessly?

For my four-hour trip to the Chateau, the GT-R seemed the perfect choice – and, as well as the pleasure of driving Nissan’s supercar, I was also looking forward to getting an evocative shot of the GT-R backed by the Chateau and Mt Ruapehu.

Ice and Snow

Alas, I never got to see Mt Ruapehu during my brief stay; the mountain remained obdurately swathed in rain and fog – so much for taking that picture postcard photograph of the Chateau!

The weather turned even worse the following morning. Snow was falling while I tucked into breakfast, while outside in the car park the once bright red GT-R was shivering under a white coating of snow and ice. Needless to say, despite being encased in ice the GT-R started first time, although manoeuvring the car around the icy car-park for a quick photo-shoot wasn’t a simple affair, with the traction control quickly losing the plot. So, traction control off – gulp – I didn’t even have to turn the steering wheel to change direction, the accelerator pedal being more than enough to swing the car through 180 degrees.

Then, half-a-dozen photos in, the snow returned – digital cameras don’t appreciate getting wet, so the shoot was abandoned and I slid and slipped my way back to the warmth of the Chateau. I’d done my best.

Of course, if taking photos had proved tricky, I now had to consider the drive home. After my car-park shenanigans I figured I’d need to drive down from the Chateau with the traction control turned off – a perilous thought when you’ve got over 350kW hitting the snow-covered road through a set of Dunlop summer boots.

With careful management of the gas pedal, I managed a pretty good Torvill and Dean impression as the GT-R quite literally skated down the road leading away from the Chateau. It was quite a relief to get back onto the state highway where I only had rain to contend with, rather than ice and snow. Well, that’s what I thought at first – until the rain gods turned up the dial to ‘monsoon’ and I soon found myself driving through absolutely torrential rain. A network of streams, puddles and washes dotted the road ahead and the GT-R developed an unnerving taste for aquaplaning on its summer tyres. Visibility was down to a few metres ahead, with the rearwards view completely obscured by the GT-R’s rooster-tail of spray.

To say that the drive back to Auckland was nasty would be a severe understatement – it was the worst weather I’ve driven in for over a decade.

Fortunately I made it back to tell the tale – and for that I have the GT-R to thank. It may not have been too fond of traversing deep surface water, but on more freely drained roads it dug in and found enough grip to ensure steady and rapid progress homewards.

My conclusion after two days of driving was that the GT-R is a truly impressive piece of machinery and, although Nissan has dropped the Skyline name, the GT-R carries on a legacy that began way back in the Swinging Sixties. For someone like myself – steeped in classic cars and motoring history – what struck me most vividly about the GT-R is that it’s almost as powerful and as rapid as the V12-powered R380-III racing car. Yet the GT-R is a road-going car that, at legal speeds, is almost as easy to drive as your old granny’s Micra.

As a final observation – if you want to make a career out of embarrassing self-satisfied Italian supercar owners, the GT-R is tailor-made for the job!

[Many thanks to Mike Gilmour at City Nissan for providing our test Nissan GT-R Premium]

2009 Nissan R35 GT-R Premium – Specifications

Engine: VR38DETT V6
Capacity: 3799cc
Bore/ stroke: 95.5 x 88.4mm
Valves: Two per cylinder, overhead C/R Dohc, variable valve timing
Max power: 353kW (190hp) at 6400rpm
Max torque: 588Nm at 3200-5200rpm
Fuel system: Nissan EGI fuel-injection
Transmission: Rear-mounted, six-speed dual-clutch with three driver-selectable shift modes
Suspension F/R F: Double wishbone with aluminium upper arms R: Multi-link with aluminium upper links Bilstein DampTronic system with three driver-selectable modes
Steering: Electronically controlled rack and pinion with speed sensitive power steering
Brakes: Disc/disc (Brembo) ABS, traction control. VDC-R, EBD
Wheels: Light alloy – F: 20×9.5in/R: 20×10.5in)
Tyres: Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST Run-Flat *(as tested) F: 255/40RF20 97Y/R: 285/35RF20 100Y

Dimensions:
O/all length 4655mm
Width 1895mm
Height 1370mm
Wheelbase 2780mm
Track F/R 1590/ 1600mm
Kerb weight 1740kg

Performance:
Max speed 311kph
0-100kph 3.5 seconds
Standing 1/4 mile 11.6 seconds

Bayview Chateau Tongariro

The first road was pushed towards Mt Ruapehu in the 1920s, much of the work being done by convicts from the Whakapapa prison camp. Sir James Gunson, once Mayor of Auckland, is recorded as the first to drive a car to Whakapapa – before then, the area was only accessible on horse-back.

With the once remote Mt Ruapehu district now opened to easier access, the Tongariro Park Tourist Company was formed, its plan being to build an imposing and elegant chateau-style hotel to cater for tourists and locals who wanted to try their hand at skiing.

It may all have seemed a little fanciful, but on January 10, 1929, construction began on The Chateau and, amazingly, the new building was opened for guests on August 1 1929.

Before long The Chateau became a Mecca for well-heeled overseas visitors, all of whom marvelled at the building’s neo-Georgian splendour and spectacular views of Mt Tongariro.

However, the advent of WWII put an end to this glamorous period. With overseas travel severely restricted, the Chateau was taken over by the government to be used as an asylum – although it would open again as a hotel, freshly renovated, in 1948.

In 1957 came more changes as the Chateau was taken over by the Tourist Hotel Corporation, which would further develop the outlying Whakapapa ski fields. In 1990, the Chateau passed into private ownership.

Today, under new ownership and renamed as the Bayview Chateau Tongariro, this remarkable hotel still retains its former air of luxury. When adding a new wing to the hotel, care was taken to maintain the Chateau’s old world ambience.

Today, this multi-award winning hotel has just turned 80 years old, and still offers fine dining under grand chandeliers and unsurpassed service.

NZ Classic Car only spent a single night at the Chateau, but it was a memorable experience – in a luxurious and well equipped room in the new wing, with a simply superb evening meal and a welcome and hearty breakfast the following morning. The service during our brief stay was nothing short of exemplary – for once I was made to feel like royalty, instead of a tatty old motoring journalist.

Many thanks to all the staff and management of Bayview Chateau Tongariro for allowing us to make their splendid hotel a NZCC Classic Destination.

Bayview Chateau Tongariro – Freefone 0800 CHATEAU – www.chateau.co.nz

Words: Allan Walton Photos: Allan Walton and Adam Croy

This article is fron NZ Classic Car issue 238. Click here to check it out.

Enter Toyota’s glass-and-concrete head office and you expect to see a few new cars. You don’t expect an ageing Corona, but the company is proud of this one. For it’s the earliest surviving Toyota assembled in New Zealand, or at least the earliest one the company could find when it started its search back in 1976.

The hunt for this early survivor was simplified by Toyota’s punctilious record-keeping; according to Toyota product planner, Bruce Buckland, the car’s unofficial nanny. Back then the details of every Toyota built at the Thames or Christchurch plants were entered manually into a build card system that kept a record of the vehicle’s progress.

The date it was in the body jig; the frame, key and engine numbers; the paint and trim colours; and finally the date it passed quality control and came off the assembly line were recorded, and it was these records Toyota referred to when seeking that earliest car – a Corona RT40 sedan, which rolled out of the Steel Motor Assembly Plant in Christchurch in 1967.

Is it our first Toyota? Bruce isn’t sure – a few others may have died in the decade or so before the search began, and the records of that search no longer exist. What Toyota does know is this car was first registered on February 3, 1967, and was sold that year to a Raymond James Dalton, then to Waikato Motors in 1971 – with 50,478 on the odometer, in kilometres according to my notes, though miles is more likely given the date. The current odometer is no help as it’s a recent replacement.

The Corona sold again that year to a young married couple, who were still driving it when Toyota tracked them down in 1976. Having started a new business in Hamilton, they were probably strapped for cash, and no doubt gobsmacked to be offered a brand new RT102 Corona in place of their older car. But the deal was done, and the RT40 headed for Toyota’s SKD assembly plant in Johnsonville, Wellington, for restoration.

According to the list Bruce found, the phone lines to the Palmerston North parts department must have rung hot as the restoration team sought front guards, a new bonnet and boot lid, new front and rear doors and bumpers, door handles and chrome accessories, and new head, tail, side and number plate lamps – all then still in stock.

The team went over the body, removing every trace of corrosion and filling the joints with solder where necessary; “I don’t think corrosion protection was what it is now,” Bruce says, with a grin. Tectyl anti-rust coating was applied, followed by new paint inside and out.

Back then the Corona was still in production – albeit with a later model – and the Christchurch plant still had all the patterns to make new interior trim. The seats, carpets, headlining, door trims and sun visors were all renewed. Toyota also noted an engine problem developed when the car was driven to Christchurch – one presumes to fit the trim – and the engine was rebuilt while there. Any details? Bruce says not.

Since then normal servicing has of course continued, with brakes, batteries, radiators and tyres fitted as necessary.

A 2001 check revealed a few hiccups, and the front cross-member, top and bottom wishbones, shock absorbers and springs were removed and restored to as-new condition. At the same time new top and bottom ball joints, wishbone pivots and tie rod ends were fitted.

On The Road

The car now lives in Toyota New Zealand’s maintenance workshop, which looks after fleet cars, launch vehicles and the Corona’s stable-mate, a 1967 Daihatsu 360. It’s rarely used, though Buckland drives it occasionally; “I had the kids in it the other day and they laughed their heads off, but the 12-year-old did call it a cool car!”

I don’t know about that – most Toyota staff laughed, too, when told I’d be going for a drive. But whether you count a restored Corona as a classic or not, this car is a bit of NZ history and I wanted to try her out.

I soon discovered I’d have to ignore the helpful sales guide. This car doesn’t have the instrument panel “lavishly padded to absorb impact”, the organ-stop control knobs don’t feel “safety soft” and the brochure’s steering wheel, with its “thickly padded hub to protect the driver from severe impact” is different in our car to that pictured.

I hoped to avoid severe impacts anyway – as Bruce says, driving any vehicle this age or older brings new meaning to the term, defensive driving.

But first – start-up. There’s no choke; you pump the throttle pedal once, she fires then dies. Second time, same – but to be fair, she’s been parked outside overnight, it’s still only eight degrees, and I’m also cold and reluctant to get going. On the third try she fired, took the throttle and I had a look round while the engine warmed.

The interior’s as tidy as you’d expect from the extensive restoration and light duties since. Very tidy in fact, the vinyl-covered bench seats and cream roof lining a pleasant mustard-coloured contrast to the red exterior paint.

The four-speed column-change gear lever requires very positive action. There’s synchromesh on all forward gears with a tall first by modern standards; a three-speed manual and Toyoglide auto were also available back then.

There are no rear view mirrors, and I decided to familiarise myself on the open road before tackling town.

As you’d expect, there’s lots of wind and road noise compared to a modern car, but ride initially seemed composed. We got up to speed alright, cruising comfortably in fourth at 100kph, though she wallowed like a small boat in a swell. The steering was rather vague and there wasn’t so much understeer as relentless drift. But relax, learn to trust it’ll be okay and take a less precise attitude to line, a more relaxed approach to the tiller, and you start to relax yourself. You don’t so much pick a line, as pick a lane – it’s an increasingly soothing process.

By now I needed a coffee, so it was back into Palmy where I found the car’s Achilles heel, its brakes. There’s a heavy dive to the front right; I’d happily drive this car every day in every respect bar stopping power, though the uneven pull suggests that could be fixed.

Otherwise she was easy to use round town. I liked the steering wheel’s chrome half-hoop that looks decorative, but accesses the indicator at the tap of a thumb whatever the wheel angle. There’s no power steer but a very direct feel, the low-mounted steering wheel and very upright driving position easy to use and offering a good all-round view from the airy glasshouse.

An airy view of interested passers-by! Several stopped to chat when we photographed her, most as enthused as I was becoming. This Corona is easy to drive, and offers plenty of character, from the deeply vibing idle to the of-its-time looks.

The Corona would make a good everyday classic and I’ll be hoping for another drive, though Bruce may not be willing. After all, this particular Corona is far from everyday – it’s a piece of local history. And anyway, why lend it to me, when he can give the kids another taste of old-world cool?

1967 Toyota Corona RT40 – Specifications

Engine: Four cylinder, water-cooled
Capacity: 1490cc
Bore/ stroke: 78 x 78mm
Comp ratio: 8.3:1
Valves: ohv
Max power: 61kW (82bhp) at 5200rpm
Max torque: 122Nm at 2800rpm
Fuel system: Downdraught twin-barrel carburettor with automatic choke
Transmission: Four speed manual
Suspension (F/R): Independent front with coil springs and telescopic shocks/semi-elliptical leaf springs
Steering: Worm and sector roller type
Brakes: Duo-servo drums front and rear (front discs optional)
Wheels/tyres: Pressed steel disc wheels, 5.60-13 tyres:

Dimensions:
Wheelbase: 2420mm
O/all length: 4085mm
Width: 1550mm
Height: 1420mm
Track F/R: 1270/1270mm
Weight: 925kg
Fuel tank capacity: 45 litres

Performance:
Top speed: 145kph
Max cruising speed: 130kph
Standing 1/4: 19.4 seconds
Av fuel consumption: N/A
Production: May 1967-January 1970

(Corona models were assembled in NZ until February 1996) Toyota NZ’s sales records only go back to 1976, however in that year a total of 3217 Coronas were sold.

Words & Photos: Jacqui Madelin

This article is from NZ Classic Car issue 231. Click here to check it out.

The evolution of Nissan’s Z cars hasn’t come without setbacks and growing pains. The Z badge has never enjoyed a long uninterrupted evolution like the benchmark Porsche 911. But with pain comes strength, and Nissan is back flexing its design and engineering muscle with the most recent branch on the Z family tree — the 370Z.

The exterior aesthetic of the 370Z offers a buffet of styling cues and athletic lines, but it’s not until you slide into the car’s enveloping leather and suede bucket seats that it becomes clear this is a modern sports car without compromise. Surrounding the driver is a range of soft, tactile, leather-bound surfaces and high quality materials. It’s a dark, purposeful cabin lightened by silver and brushed metal accents and the use of various circular shapes.

Modern touches collide with traditional Z elements, such as a digital clock amongst the three, dashboard-mounted auxiliary gauges. With the main instrument cluster tied to the adjustable steering column, power adjustable seats and a closely located gear-stick, finding a comfortable driving position presents no difficulty. Once that’s achieved, hit the push-button start and the engine awakens with a raspy note. Bury a foot into the floor-hinged accelerator pedal, and any notion that the 370Z is a mere retro-themed toy will be left behind — rapidly.

As the sixth vehicle to wear the ‘Z’ badge, the 370Z has a range of ancestors from which to draw comparisons, but the yardstick for measuring any Z car remains the original Datsun 240Z.

The First Z

The significance of the 240Z is greater than just being the first Z produced, it played a starring role in changing the world’s perception of Japanese performance cars. Before the 240Z, Japanese sports cars were often viewed as simply too small, too uncomfortable and worse, underpowered. This harsh global opinion lit a fire under one Nissan executive, Yutaka Katayama — who would later become known as Mr K. During the late 1960s, Mr K set about creating a Japanese sports car to silence the critics. Fuelled by a passion for the Jaguar E-Type, which he viewed as perfection, Mr K sketched out his pivotal design criteria.

The new Nissan coupe had to be designed for safety and comfort with a unique style, it would make use of part sharing for low development costs, be innovative in its design and technology, be functional and, most importantly, fast.

It was a tall order, but in 1969 Mr K’s dream became reality with the launch of the 240Z. The 240Z fulfilled the challenging criteria, impressed critics and, thanks to low pricing, became a sales success. The rest, as they say, is history.

Mr K’s story is an interesting one, but that was 40 years ago and we now live in more cynical times, so fresh evidence of the 240Z’s merits is required.

We needed a 240Z with a story, not some garage dust magnet but a regularly raced, occasionally modified and always loved example. Surprisingly, all it took was a single phone call to locate such a car. The president of the Datsun Z Club of New Zealand, Dee Collins, brought out her own personal Datsun 240Z to show us how a real Z car rolls.

Racing Career

Dee’s 1971 240Z was purchased late 1979 in circumstances probably familiar to many classic car owners. Dee’s late husband, Graham, left home one day to buy a different car, but when he returned it was at the wheel of a Datsun 240Z. The car had a high odo reading and, due to a good dose of rust, had been purchased for a bargain price.

Over the next 15 years Graham and Dee’s 240Z was treated to regular tweaks and modifications to better facilitate its race-track duties. Once the rust was removed, the car was lowered on sports springs and shocks, and dressed up with after-market wheels.

Under the bonnet the original six-cylinder, cast-iron block and alloy head was retained but bored out from the standard 2393cc displacement to 2690cc. The camshaft was reground, while enlarged extractors and a sports exhaust system were also fitted.

The standard twin carburettors also received attention to further increase power. Maintaining an original-looking engine bay was important to Graham, and by resisting the urge to fit triple carburettors, this goal was achieved.

In return for Graham’s investment and affection the 240Z gave back 10 years of solid service on the track. From 1982 to 1992 Graham and his 240Z competed in almost every classic car race they could gain entry to, including support races for both the Benson and Hedges Series and the Australian Touring Car Championship.

While the 240Z was always competitive on the track with Porsches and Jaguars of the same era, its reliability would ultimately prove its most impressive characteristic. Graham would drive the car to each race meeting, and after every race he would drive it back home again. In all the years it raced, not once did the 240Z return to his garage on the back of a tow truck.

Today, the 240Z has retired from the rigours of circuit racing, but its throaty exhaust note can still be heard every week or two when Dee takes it out for an open road run or to attend a Z Club function. Dee still enjoys the 240Z for reasons away from all the memories it holds, she finds the styling timelessly beautiful, and she loves the sound of it and the raw driving experience it has always offered.

The 240Z understandably has a nostalgic value to Dee and the Collins family, but it is also a special vehicle amongst Z Club ranks.

The club was founded in 1981 by five initial members and their Z cars — Dee’s 240Z remaining the sole founding vehicle still in the same hands. By 1983 the Z Club had a 200-strong membership base, and it has continued to grow into one of New Zealand’s most active car clubs.

The 1980s was the heyday for modifying and racing 240Zs in New Zealand, and the first 15 years of the Z Club was defined by frequent race meetings. Now, fewer members are willing to put their classics on to the track, but the performance capabilities and driver enjoyment of the 240Z continues to be exercised by Dee and other club members during runs and organised events.

Back to the Beginnings

Since the final 240Z rolled off the line in 1979 Nissan had kept the Z badge alive, but slowly it drifted away from Mr K’s original design criteria. Progressively bigger, heavier, more expensive and over-equipped models marked a distinct departure from the original’s lightweight, agile charms.

However, in 2002 — with the release of the 350Z — Nissan took a step back towards the styling and the ethos behind the 240Z, and the new 370Z nudges even closer.

Parking our two vehicles side by side it’s easy to identify aesthetic similarities. The roofline and window shape on the 370Z is a purposeful throwback to its ancestor, with the pinched-off belt line and wide C-pillar reinforcing the resemblance. General dimensional similarities are evident in the cab-forward design and short rear overhang on the 370Z, which adds visual length to the bonnet — a signature feature of the 240Z. Other evidence of shared DNA can be found in the retro, dual-purpose Z badge and the indicators on the front guards of the 370Z.

The 370Z mimics the strong physical presence of the 240Z while adding width — and those unmissable rear haunches.

When asked her thoughts about the new model parked beside her beloved 240Z, Dee was quick to comment on the 370Z’s beautiful design, and her pleasure at seeing a return to form for the Z cars after the disappointing intermediate models. But would she swap her 240Z for the new model? No way! Mind you, not surprisingly, Dee could happily live with both cars in her garage.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The 370Z offers more than a passing nod to the 240Z in styling terms, but cut through the new model’s sheet metal, and it’s all modern technology underneath. Jammed into the engine bay is Nissan’s latest VQ-series six-cylinder powerplant. Unlike the 240Z’s straight-six, the 370Z is home to a 3.7-litre V6 unit that thumps out 245kW of grunt and 363Nm of torque.

This bent-six will rocket the 370Z from standing to 100kph in a mere 5.3 seconds and packs enough innovative tricks to appease Mr K himself. The pick of the new gear is Nissan’s Variable Valve Event and Lift (VVEL) technology. This helps the Nissan achieve both blistering performance and almost decent economy (10.4l/100km). How? The conventional lobed camshaft in the VQ engine is replaced by a complex variable reciprocating mechanism that can adjust the intake valve lift and timing infinitely for either maximum performance or more frugal economy.

On the road the VVEL system gifts the 370Z with an almost a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality. Under light throttle the 370Z is a relaxed suburban cruiser, but put your foot down and it quickly turns leery. During spirited driving there is nothing gentle about the 370Z, the motor sings out gruffly and vibration can be felt through the wheel as the revs climb. The cabin fills with a variety of mechanical and tyre noises and the driver connects through thick, meaty controls that are heavy enough to warrant a firm hand. Power delivery arrives in a linear fashion without the surge of torque you’d get in a turbocharged vehicle. Smooth, naturally aspirated acceleration makes the 370Z easy to anticipate and adjust its attitude using only the gas pedal.

Ride quality is suitably firm but with enough compliance to disarm most bumps and dips on uneven roads, while body roll is kept to a minimum. It’s also well balanced with a near-optimal 53 per cent front, 47 per cent rear weight distribution.

The 370Z changes direction with agility thanks largely to an all-alloy double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension set-up. Generally a high level of grip is on offer, and pushing too hard will initially result only in predictable understeer. Deactivate the stability control and you’ll need to be much sharper to avoid getting out of shape.

The bottom line is that the 370Z is an unapologetic sports car that makes little attempt at any real refinement or multi-purpose use. Through this uncompromising approach it pushes all the right sensory buttons for those seeking excitement.

While is shares definite styling similarities with the 240Z, what will really excite Z-car fans about the new model is how it revisits the thinking behind Mr K’s original design criteria — an exact recipe on how to cook up an affordable sports car; one that could inspire genuine passion from those who owned one and those who wanted to. The 240Z is still inspiring such passion from Dee Collins and her fellow Z Club members.

The new 370Z scores points for its evolutionary, rather than revolutionary approach, but the final test is one that only time can tell. If the 370Z can one day match the reliability and timeless appeal of the 240Z, then it may prove a worthy successor to the crown. But until that day comes, there remains only one iconic Z car.

Words: Adam Mamo Photos: Dan Wakelin

With its strong background of high performance motorbikes, it was not surprising that Honda’s first prototype cars in the early ’60s were sports cars — the 1962 S360 and S500 sports cars shown domestically at the Japan Motor Show. Other sporting Hondas have graced the Honda line-up over the years, and a mid-to-late ’80s favourite was the little CR-X coupe. We profile these two models in the first of a series on Honda sports-mobiles.

Honda S500

The reception at the Japan Motor Show in 1962 was favourable, with the S500 getting the nod for production as the larger motor made it a more attractive prospect for international sales.

In 1963 the first S500s rolled off the production line, featuring much of the technological expertise that Honda had built up during its years of motorcycle production. It featured an aluminium 531cc water-cooled, dohc four-cylinder engine. The S500 (as well as the later S600 and S800) used an interesting induction system in the form of one carburettor per cylinder. It produced 33kW at an astounding (for a road car built in 1963) 8000rpm, and it would continue to rev to a 9500rpm redline thanks to the needle roller bearing crank that ensured smooth, high rev limits safely and reliably (these engines also possessed a reputed ability to rev to beyond 11,000rpm!).

The drivetrain broke new ground, with a four-speed gearbox driving to a differential, which spread the drive to a sprocket each side. The wheels were actually driven, motorcycle-style, by chain, with the chain-case acting as the suspension arm, giving both longitudinal and some lateral location. It was an effective independent rear suspension set-up that kept unsprung weight to a minimum. Front suspension was also independent, with double wishbones.

Perhaps the only negative part in the chassis design was the use of drum brakes front and rear, but the fact that the S500 only weighed 725kg meant they did an adequate job.

The neat styling took few risks, borrowing more than a few cues from the British sports cars of the time. It was available only in convertible form, though Honda did sell an optional hard-top.

Honda S600

Released in 1964, the S600 was effectively a revised S500 that featured styling changes to the front of the car, to the grille, bumper and headlights. Perhaps the main talking point was that the S600 was available in coupe form as well as the convertible, with the coupe only weighing 15kg more than the convertible. The new 606cc engine was of similar design to the earlier engine, and produced 43kW at similarly astronomical revs, with peak power at 8500rpm and again redline at 9500rpm. It retained the suspension, brakes and driveline of the S500, and stayed in production till 1966.

Honda S800

Honda once again revised the design and debuted the S800 in 1965. Still available in roadster and coupe guises, it reached production in 1966 and remained in production until 1970. Honda made further styling changes to the front and rear of the car that would last the lifetime of the model, but under the skin more noticeable changes were made. The displacement of the engine was increased to 791cc, which helped the driveability as the earlier smaller motors lacked torque, and really needed to be revved hard to make quick progress, though in practice even the 791cc motor was still low on torque. It now made 52kW at 8000rpm and this was enough to let the little Honda just reach the 161kph/100mph barrier flat-out.

The innovative chain drive units that functioned as suspension arms in the S500 and S600 were replaced early in the life of the S800 in 1967 with a more conventional shaft drive to a live axle rear end, and soon after, a long-awaited upgrade to disc brakes in the front further helped the S800’s sports car credentials.

None of the S series of Honda sports cars were big sellers, even in Japan, as at the time few people were prepared to take a leap of faith on a somewhat unproven marque when the British and Italian sports car industries were flourishing, and the discerning buyer had the choice of Spridgets, Spitfires, MGBs, Fiat 850 and 124s etc.

First Generation Honda CR-X

In the early ’80s, Honda noted a lack of a small, affordable sporting car in its line-up and introduced the CR-X sports hatchback in 1983/4. A rakish fastback built on the latest Civic saloon platform, it was soon a successful seller. The Civic was dynamically competent anyway, but Honda modified the suspension, making it lower and stiffer, so the CR-X handled impressively with predictable handling and lots of grip to exploit. The CR-X was sold in multiple specification levels, from a simple poverty spec 1.3-litre to the hotter 1.5 12-valve injected motor boasting around 75kW.

In 1986, late in the life of the first generation CR-X, it was fitted with the motor that really made the CR-X, a 1.6-litre twin-cam unit with 93kW. The 1.6 CRX could run to 100kph in eight seconds and reach 200kph flat out, which was finally enough performance to see off those pesky European GTis that would previously have outrun it.

Second Generation Honda CR-X

In 1987, the second generation CR-X was introduced. It kept the compact, aggressive proportions of the original CR-X but now had smoother, less angular styling to create a more up-to-date look.

Dynamically it was a superior car as Honda had engineered a new fully independent suspension design, with double wishbones front and rear. The CR-X retained the 1.6 engine with a slight power boost to 97kW to offset the minor weight gain.

Once again, like the first CR-X, the second generation would be fitted with its hottest motor half way through its lifespan when, in 1989, the Honda CR-X SiR was the second Honda (after the Integra XSi) to be fitted with Honda’s brand new 1.6-litre twin-cam engine with the VTEC variable valve timing system. It was a whole new engine that shared nothing with the previous 1.6 unit. Thanks to the VTEC system it was able to be driven normally at low revs with excellent response and good fuel economy, and when the driver revved the engine above the 6000rpm point it would switch over to an aggressive secondary camshaft profile that made the full 119kW available. The VTEC-equipped engine was very powerful, especially for its capacity (it reached the 74.5kW per litre mark) and it rewarded enthusiastic driving to keep the revs in the power sweet spot. Some lower-spec models were fitted with a 1.5 fuel injected engine, but they were more of a poser-mobile than a proper sports hatch, and we’d recommend sticking to the 1.6 Si and the SiR models for maximum sports-car entertainment. The second generation CR-X was phased out in 1992.

CR-X Del Sol

Enthusiasts around the world waited with bated breath for the announcement of the new CR-X. They were somewhat disappointed! Unfortunately, from the outside the new CR-X (also known as the Del Sol) was somewhat of a styling departure from the earlier cars, and was not as well received. It is, however, an underrated car because dynamically it was still an engaging drive, and since it used an updated version of the 1.6 VTEC engine (with a little extra power, up to 123kW) it was still a fast, fun little car. However, the new Targa-type styling was not in keeping with the previous coupes, and while it was cleanly styled, it missed the mark and many enthusiasts stayed away. The Targa roof meant that the car featured extra bracing over the admittedly slightly flimsy coupes, and so weight jumped up to just over 1100kg for the Del Sol SiR rather than less than 1000kg for the previous CR-X SiR. Some CR-Xs came with the optional power-operated retractable Targa roof — effective and interesting while it worked, but it is plagued by motor and gear issues which are not cheap to fix. The system also added approximately 50kg to the base weight of the CRX.

The Del Sol was also available with a single-cam VTEC 1.5-litre from 1992 until 1995, and a 1.6-litre version from 1995 on, which developed 97kW. The single-cam VTECs are designed primarily for economy over performance, and should not be confused with the performance-tuned 1.6 twin-cam VTEC engines.

The third generation CR-X stayed in production to 1998.

Buyers’ Guide S500/600/800

We can’t really offer any type of guide to buying a S500, S600 or S800 as there are very few in NZ, and those who have them will be hanging on to them! If one ever does surface, be aware of rust problems, and engine wear, as those high revs eventually take their toll, and parts are very thin on the ground worldwide.

Buyers’ Guide CR-X/Del Sol

The first CR-X models are hard to find these days as they succumb rather easily to rust, and many have been thrashed into submission. There are still some running about, but be careful if buying, as rust can be prevalent throughout the vehicle. Mechanically, like your average Japanese car they are simple and quite reliable, the motors good for 200,000km-plus, but the gearboxes tend to wear much more quickly, especially if they have had a hard life.

You may not get a large variety of these to choose from since there aren’t many left, and we would recommend looking for a second generation car as arguably they are a better choice. That said, if you happen to find a first gen car that has been looked after nicely (there are some out there) jump on it, as they are still an entertaining drive. The second gen cars are our best buy suggestion, as dynamically and performance-wise they are the strongest CR-X. Rust is less of a problem with these later cars, though you may find some in the hatch area, but generally they survive quite well. The engines are also strong; the VTEC ones, despite the complex valvetrain technology, are very reliable, also capable of well over 200,000km. Once again, the gearboxes are a weak point. You will notice worn synchros, graunching at high revs, and difficulty changing gear in the lower ratios if the ’box is worn.

The good thing is that there are a fair number around, and many parts are shared with the same generation of Civic, so parts are not a problem. The bad news is that finding a good one is now difficult. There are some still out there though. Expect to pay $2.5-4K for a tidy CR-X Si and $5K-plus for a nice CR-X SiR. We would suggest the SiR as is it packs a very sweet, responsive engine; it is an excellent drive; and you get a lot of bang for your buck.

The Del Sol is probably the easiest to buy since it is less popular among enthusiasts and has generally lived a quieter life. Rust is minimal unless the roof has leaked (not unknown). Stay well away from the transtop electric roof unless you like unreliable, unnecessary gadgets. Mechanically the Del Sol is very similar to the same era Civic and very reliable, with no major issues.

Specifications

Honda S500
Built: 1963-1964, 1363 built
Engine: 531cc four cylinder, eight valve 33kW (44bhp)
Body style: Two-seater roadster
Performance: Top speed 129kph (80mph)

Honda S600
Built: 1964-1966, 11,284 roadsters and 1800 coupes built
Engine: 606cc four cylinder, eight valve 43kW (57bhp)
Body style: Two-seater roadster and coupe
Performance: Top speed 145kph (90mph)

Honda S800
Built: 1966-1970, 11,536 incl roadster and coupe
Engine: 791cc four cylinder, eight valve 52kW (70bhp)
Body style: Two-seater roadster and coupe
Performance: Top speed 154-161kph (96-100mph)

Honda CR-X 1st Gen
Built: 1983-1986
Engine: 1488cc four cylinder, 12 valve, 57-78kW (76-105bhp), then 1590cc four cylinder, 16 valve, 93kW (125bhp)
Body style: 2+2 sports hatch
Performance: Top speed 167-201kph (104-125mph), 0-100kph 8.0-9.5 seconds

Honda CR-X 2nd Gen
Built: 1987-1991
Engine: 1493cc four cylinder, 12 valve 79kW (106bhp), 1590cc four cylinder, 16 valve 97kW (130bhp), 1595cc four cylinder, 16 Valve VTEC, 119kW (160bhp)
Body style: 2+2 sports hatch
Performance: Top speed 180-200kph, 0-100kph 7.0-9.5 seconds

Honda CR-X Del Sol
Built: 1992-1998
Engine: 1493cc four cylinder, 16 valve sohc VTEC 97kW (130bhp), 1590cc four cylinder, 16 valve sohc VTEC 97kW (130bhp), 1595cc four cylinder, 16 Valve VTEC, 123kW (165bhp)
Body style: 2 seater Targa sports car
Performance: Top speed 180-200kph, 0-100kph 7.0-9.5 seconds

Words: Philip and David Cass

Tim Chadwick wishes he had a bigger shed when he discovers a rare early ’80s pillar-less Subaru coupe that is being sold off from a private collection.

Mr C — have you seen that ol’ school Subie at the back of the car sales yard on Devon Street?” — a question asked of me by a former student one Saturday. At the time, he was showing me his latest Subaru Impreza. No, I had not — so the once expert paper dart thrower, now a street-wise Subaru driver, encouraged me to venture to the rear of Wade Cars Ltd on New Plymouth’s Devon Street for a close gander at the car that had excited the aforementioned young Subaru enthusiast.

There before me was an old 1983 Subaru coupe, the likes of which I had only seen in old overseas-produced rallying magazines. Being from Taranaki, I am well aware that Subaru vehicles were assembled at Waitara in North Taranaki, and most of the older models are familiar to me. However, the bright red pillar-less coupe before me was something rare in New Zealand. I’ve seen my share of early wedge-shaped Subaru Vortex coupes and the later equally collectable Giugiaro-designed SVX coupe, but never an ’83 coupe based on the Leone/Chaser platform outside the confines of a book.

I shoulder-tapped Bob Wade, who was selling the old Subaru from his yard, and he informed me that it was a one elderly owner example, had low kilometres for its age and had spent many of its recent years in his own private collection due to its rarity and good all-round condition, but that he was now rationalising some of his collection and the Subaru had to be moved on.
Frank Oscar Helen and Leone

Our featured rare Subaru 1800 GLF coupe is from the second generation of Leone models which were launched in Japan in 1979. By the end of 1980 they had been released in Europe, the US and most other countries in the world.

Fuji Heavy Industries, the Subaru brand owner and constructor, was starting the ’80s with a major marketing onslaught under company president, Sadamichi Sasaki, the results of which we see today on New Zealand roads and in our domestic rally championships.

Fuji Heavy Industries grew from the remnants of the Nakajima Aircraft Company, which was disbanded by the Allies after World War II. Nakajima had produced a whole range of World War II aircraft for the Japanese military, which my generation knew well as plastic aeroplane kit-sets produced by Airfix and others back in the ’60s and ’70s — planes with names such as Nakajima ‘Frank’ KI84, ‘Oscar’ KI43 Hayabusa and ‘Helen’ KI49 Donryu. Frank, Oscar, Helen, Jill, and Kate are a far cry from a 1983s Leone!

According to Bob Wade, a few of the Subaru coupes from this model era were sent out to New Zealand from Japan for appraisal and possible assembly at Waitara, where the saloon cars were rolling off the production lines. The 1800 GLF coupes were portioned off to various franchise holders around the country.

On the Road

After talking with Bob Wade about the rare coupe, he threw me the keys and sent me out for a country drive in the car. Being a warm day I made full use of powering down the electrically operated windows, opting for the pillar-less look as I adjusted my seating and took in the wonderfully kitsch late ’70s-style Japanese plastic dash.

My only disappointment was in finding that the Subie was an automatic, as I’ve driven some other Subarus with manual transmission, and they can be quite fun with their sporty boxer engine note being worked through the gears.

Upon starting the old coupe a noisy tappet was audible, something Bob Wade assuredly told me was fixable at some stage.

Back in 1983 the Toyota Corolla, often used as the world-wide benchmark Japanese car due its popularity, was mainly being produced in the 1300-1600cc range (apart from only three top end 1800cc models). This shows how sporty the coupe’s 1800cc boxer engine was, right up there with other four-cylinder Japanese makes in engine size. New turbocharged Japanese four-cylinder cars of the early ’80s, such as the Nissan Bluebird 1800 SSS Turbo, were of course raising the power stakes, even if the handling wasn’t yet ready to match the new found power!

Hitachi-Stromberg

Out on the highway the Subaru breathed freely through its Hitachi-Stromberg downdraught twin-barrel carburettor, and despite being an automatic it had plenty of get up and go and would probably make a great boxer sound with a sports exhaust system fitted if an owner so wished.

This coupe has been well maintained and valet-groomed throughout its life and, to look at, the interior is fairly close to new. On the exterior some minor dings and blemishes can be spotted upon close inspection, but these are not at all serious and didn’t detract from my sporty drive on the highway and then over some undulating Taranaki country roads.

If I hadn’t already purchased a classic ’70s Viva as my daily run-around, this Subaru would sorely tempt me. It is now unique, hasn’t been wrecked by boy-racers and is quite possibly among the few of these that may now be left in the world, owing to the Japanese having sent many of their’ 80s cars to the crusher long ago.

Some may well still exist in parts of Europe and North America, but I am only presuming, as I do not know how many of the Leone coupes went Stateside. Rarer still are the GTS turbocharged 4WD versions of this model, but I have never seen one in New Zealand thus far, and one Subaru expert I spoke to seemed to think that most of the turbocharged 1800cc Subarus of this generation were in saloon/sedan configuration and that turbo Leone coupes were rare, even in Japan.

However, I was quite happy to be getting about the countryside below Mt Taranaki in this normally aspirated coupe, and didn’t feel any need to fantasise or hanker after a turbocharger, or even four wheel drive, as I wasn’t anywhere near snow, sleet or sand.

The 1781cc boxer engine allied to the three-ratio automatic gave the car peppy, albeit not breathtaking performance all-round on the hilly section of my morning’s journeying from Wade Cars Ltd.

Upon my return, Bob Wade and I shot the breeze about old Subaru Leones of the ’80s and how few of them now exist, whether Waitara assembled or imported fully built up like our featured test car.

To young Kiwi car enthusiasts these are now genuine old school cars and, hopefully, they will now be respected, preserved and not vandalised. Apart from my old English Riley, I was a ‘Mitsi-turbo’ boy back in the ’80s, and so my drive in the Subaru was a great experience for finding out how the boxer-brigade (outside of Porsche, Ferrari and VW) got around in sporty style back then.

As for the Subaru Leone model from Fuji Heavy Industries of Tokyo, it was phased out after one more generation of Leone, before being replaced by the Legacy model (the Loyale in Chile and North America). Today, outside of rescued old rally cars, few useable Leone-era Subarus still exist.

The rare 1800 Subaru coupe at the back of Bob Wade’s car lot is now a good everyday classic for the Subie fan and, as far as I’m concerned, a genuine Japanese classic.

1983 Subaru GLF 1800 Coupe – Specifications

Engine: 1781cc, flat four-cylinder
Max power: 81kW at 6000rpm
C/R: 9.5:1
Fuel system: Hitachi-Stromberg two-barrel downdraught
Transmission: Three-speed automatic
Body: Hard top — pillarless two-door

Dimensions:
Wheelbase: 2450mm
Length: 4180mm
Width: 1620mm
Height: 1380mm
Weight: 980kg

Performance:
Max speed: 180kph (112mph)

Words and Photos: Tim Chadwick

This article is from Classic Car issue 224. Click here to check it out.

Some cars from the ’80s and ’90s are now approaching classic status and, in this new series, we look at some of these cars — those that may appeal to our younger readers

With the introduction of the Series 6 RX-7, Mazda re-invented their iconic sports coupe

From its first incarnation in 1978, the Mazda RX-7 has always been a bit of a trendsetter, a giant-killer and generally something for boys to stare at with googly eyes whilst oohing and aahing in near erotic fashion. Although these well-priced sports coupes proved very popular through the late ’70s and ’80s, it wasn’t until the introduction of the third evolution of the RX-7, the Series 6 or FD3S, that Mazda really set the world alight.

Instant praise came flooding in. No-one could fault the powerful twin-turbocharged, perfectly balanced and beautifully formed sports car, quickly dubbed the ‘Batmobile.’ Even Playboy magazine named the Series 6 as its car of the year in 1993.

Despite a few mechanical problems surfacing the FD3S was produced, and sold very well, for a grand total of 11 years — a testament to just how ahead of its time the car was in terms of styling, handling and performance. Even now, 16 years after the car first hit tarmac, many still consider the RX-7 to be a great vehicle.

Prettier than Thou

In the late ’80s, Mazda designers began to put pen to paper in the hope of creating their greatest car yet, the third generation Mazda RX-7. Using their long-standing design ethos — “like water flowing over rocks” — Mazda began to create a look that would soon wow the world, a look now widely regarded as the sexiest Japanese body ever built. These days, those smooth, flowing lines are often accentuated with huge after market body kits, but this is a faux pas for purists and, as the it reaches the magic 20-year mark, we should start to see fewer and fewer body kits on these cars as people try to retain the original look and feel of the Batmobile.

Like the Nissan Skyline GT-R featured last month, the RX-7 also fell victim to Japan’s 206kW ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ power cap of the ’90s. But, again as Nissan did with the GT-R, Mazda chose to build a higher power motor then work backwards, strangling and restricting the rotary until it just scraped in under the limit. This gave birth to the 13BREW, a twin turbocharged 1300cc twin rotary engine, capable of vast power with minor modifications.

Two small Hitachi turbochargers run in a sequential arrangement, with the first spooling up at 1800rpm to provide low down torque, and the second joining it at 4000rpm to provide full power. Although the Hitachi system was a great idea, and provided a smooth and linear power band, it was also fraught with problems due to its complexity.

It is because of this that buying a Series 6 RX-7 with the original twin turbo system still intact is quite difficult, let alone a gamble. Later Series 7 and 8 FD3S cars featured a revised set-up, curing the problem. The 13BREW motor is also, unfortunately, not immune to the common wear and tear problems of any other rotary motor, and generally needs a rebuild at around the 100,000 kilometre mark.

Buying Guide

Like any other sports car, it pays to look into a potential RX-7’s history and ask as many questions as possible. Who has owned it? Has it been crashed? How has it been looked after?

In terms of the engine, as mentioned above, these motors tend to last around 100,000km before they grow tired and smoky, so it pays to buy a vehicle that has just had a rebuild done, and the owner has the receipts from a reputable workshop to prove it. Alternatively, RX-7s with reasonable kilometres and still on their original engine can often be found for a good price, making for a potential great buy, providing the piece of mind knowing you had the 13B refreshed yourself.

Lastly, make sure any modifications (there are likely to be some) have been carried out properly, as the rotary world is rife with backyard mechanics, all too willing to make a buck off an unsuspecting buyer.

As for the rest of the car, Mazda really built a winner here, and there isn’t all that much that tends to go wrong if it has been looked after. Keep an eye out for the special edition RX-7s that Mazda released over the 11 years of production, most notably the Bathurst R and Spirit R, which are highly sought-after and collectable machines.

Parts Supply

Second-hand RX-7 parts are plentiful here in New Zealand due to the large number of Japanese used imports brought in over the last decade. Trade Me and rotary clubs are usually a good start, but be careful when it comes to engine parts, as many have been caught out buying from un-trusted sources. Most Mazda second-hand parts dealers will also be wrecking a few FD3S models at any one time.

New parts are also available through Mazda, although a good deal of those are ex-Japan, and command quite a high price.

Mazda RX-7 (FD3S) – Specifications

Built: 1992-2002, 68,589 built
Engine: 1300cc twin turbocharged, twin rotary engine 206kW (276bhp)
Bodies: Two and four-seater coupe
Performance: Electronically limited top speed 200-215kph (124-134mph), 0-100kph under 5.5 seconds
NZ Prices: Prices vary wildly between $10,000 and $30,000 due to the decade-long production run, and differing state of the vehicles.

Clubs

Considering the car’s sterling performance and scope for modification, RX-7 and rotary-based clubs are popular here in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the rotary scene does tend to attract the less desirable side of the car hobby, so many local clubs and websites can have a large ‘idiot’ element. Our pick, see — www.rotordynamic.co.nz or www.rotahavik.co.nz.

Words: Peter Kelly

This article is from Classic Car issue 222. Click here to check it out.

With the obsession with hot hatchbacks growing worldwide through the ’80s, the Japanese motor companies stepped forward and created some classic small hatches with big performance — and guess what, they are cult cars now

As the Japanese moved towards even smaller chassis than the European manufacturers, their motors favoured forced induction in order to get the most from small capacity motors, as opposed to the time honoured ‘small car, big motor’ design philosophy of the hot hatches one size up. For serious collectors, be aware there are several other makes and models that fit in this category which we have never seen on NZ roads: the following is a selection of those you may find on the NZ market.

Honda City Turbo + Turbo 2

The City Turbo was initially worked up as a Mugen project by Hirotoshi Honda, son of Soichiro Honda. To prove his worth as a performance specialist for Honda, Hirotoshi took the company’s economy car and comprehensively modified it.

The body remained similar to a normal City, bar a bonnet bulge and some Turbo decals. Previously, Honda had sought high performance with high-tech engine design, but this time it plumped for a turbo installation on the 1237cc single-cam City motor, hence the moniker.

It produced a solid 75kW and healthy amounts of torque throughout the rev range, in a car that weighed very little (Turbo 1— 700kg, Turbo 2 — 730kg); this gave it an unexpected turn of speed. Ventilated disc brakes on the front helped pull up the City and a sporting suspension set-up improved the handling. It was perhaps a bit crude, but nonetheless very effective and a lot of fun to drive. An interesting feature of the car was the digital speedometer surrounded by the tachometer that was shared with later models, only changing to a conventional set-up for the very last Turbo 2s. There were also a limited number of City Turbo convertibles built.

The City Turbo 2 followed the City Turbo late in 1983. A rally style body-kit with huge flared wheel-arches, a spoiler on the roof and a big bonnet bulge meant the sleeper factor of the first Turbo was lost, but it gave the little car a hugely aggressive look, and it was nicknamed ‘The Bulldog’ in Japan. An intercooler, modified intake, higher compression ratio and modifications to the turbo gave 82kW, though top speed was down a little — too many spoilers and bulges! The City Turbo 2 retained the fun handling of the original City Turbo and, these days, is still a cult car. You are more likely to come across one of these than a Turbo 1, due to the longer production run, but they still remain uncommon. There are a few cabriolets around too.

Daihatsu Charade GTti

The Charade GTti was released in 1987 to rapturous applause from motor journals worldwide. The styling was not groundbreaking but was tidy and very efficient aerodynamically (with a Cd of 0.32) and has aged well. The three-cylinder, 993cc twin-cam EFI turbo banged out 75kW, cracking the traditional 100bhp per litre mark. It may not sound like too much, but matched to a quick-shifting five-speed gearbox and a competent all-independent suspension chassis with disc brakes on all four corners, the GTti was quick enough to bother proper sports cars and hot saloons. The dynamic abilities of the GTti were praised and, combined with its turn of speed, it was a successful car for Daihatsu and was even seen on the international stage in rallying. The GTti was also sold as the GTxx in Japan, essentially the same car with some trim differences. This little car sold surprisingly well, 227,790 during its six-year lifespan.

Suzuki Swift GTi/ Holden Barina GTi

The Swift GTi was first sold in NZ and Australia in 1986 (also as the Holden Barina GTi). It used a 1298cc twin cam EFI motor that gave 75kW at 6500rpm. It was not quite the quickest car in its class — though quite light, it lacked the torque of its turbocharged rivals, but its responsive, willing engine rewarded owners when spinning past 6000rpm (peak power was delivered high in the rev range). The chassis set-up, stiffly sprung and tending toward understeer, was communicative and fun, designed with driving enjoyment in mind. Ventilated discs at the front, with drums at the rear, were enough to slow the progress of this lightweight car. The face-lifted GTi that was released in 1988/9 (not sold as a Holden this time) featured a new body style with more rounded and cohesive styling and an improved chassis, co-developed with GM. The new series engine was a more reliable unit, and the new model benefited from disc brakes all round and independent rear suspension (as opposed to the torsion beam of the earlier car). All these extras tipped the scales up to 830kg. The acceleration was slightly slower but the changes improved the later GTi dynamically. In 1993 it had a small update, some styling changes including a redesigned interior and a different taillight design. Also, with the addition of standard power windows the 1993 onwards car became a little heavier again.

Toyota Starlet GT/Glanza V

The first go-faster Starlet, the Turbo-S, appeared in 1986 while the first Starlet GTs rolled off the production lines in 1990. The GT sported different bumpers, a small roof spoiler and bonnet scoop, but outwardly was a fairly unassuming car, with less over-the-top styling than the City Turbo or the GTti. The Starlet GT walked softly but carried a big stick in the form of a 1331cc four-cylinder twin cam EFI turbo that punched out a vigorous 97kW, enough to hustle the GT to 100kph in 7.5 seconds. An interesting feature of the Starlet GT was that it was fitted with a switch that toggled the turbo boost level between high and low, an innovative feature that helped economy when the full 97kW was not required.

As standard the Starlet GT had a five-speed gearbox, but from 1992 onward an automatic was optional, as were ABS brakes. In 1994 the Starlet had a slight styling update and the previously single ‘brick’ headlights were replaced with new twin round lights.

The largest change to the Starlet came in 1996, when the GT model was replaced with the Glanza V model. It was slightly more up market with its new, sharper styling and the addition of power steering and windows, climate control air conditioning, airbags and ABS brakes. Power was boosted slightly to 99kW and weight increased to 920kg. Even with the extra weight over the previous model the Glanza V was still a great-handling small hatch, and still fast enough to be a formidable point to point weapon that was also sufficiently civilized for the daily grind through traffic.

Buying Tips

Honda City Turbo 1 and 2

The trouble these days just lies in finding one, since the body shell is not strongly built, and they tend to give in to rust easily. Also, many have been crashed, thrashed, and trashed. Prices range from around $500 for tired cars to $2.5-3K for tidy examples, again, depending on availability. These 1980s small hatches built in Japan are not exactly known for their exemplary safety record, but Citys are among the worst. All we can recommend is avoiding an accident! If involved in an accident they were often written off, so the ones that remain on the road are more than likely undamaged, but as always, it pays to have an expert check it. They are often modified, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but check the engine for smoke, especially from the turbo under load. Increased performance is easily extracted from the City Turbo motor with simple modifications, and can be done without sacrificing reliability. There is a question mark over the gearbox — a well-treated one will last, but ham-fisted drivers will kill the ’box. Parts supplies for these cars are now difficult to come by; the best thing to do is get in contact with other enthusiasts (www.cityturbo.com).

Daihatsu Charade GTti

These cars are fairly difficult to find as the good ones are still very much cult cars and devotees try to hold on to them. However, if they come up for sale these days they can be well cared for, as the owners are enthusiasts. Prices range from $2K for average condition cars up to $4.5-5K for good condition examples. They can rust, though not to the degree of City Turbos and most of the other early ‘80s Japanese cars, but checking for rust is still important. All these vehicles started life as simple, low cost cars and the interiors reflect this, with low quality materials that will likely be showing their age. Mechanically they are fairly reliable and simple. The fact that the engine and other parts are bespoke to the GTti means parts are getting hard to come by. Despite its small size, the engine is regarded as being somewhat overbuilt, sporting semi-forged pistons from the factory. Perhaps because of this, some owners have wound excess boost into them and this can damage the motor. Get a thorough check done on the engine to make sure it is in good condition.

Suzuki Swift GTi/Holden Barina GTi

As with the other cars, these were designed to be used every day, and the main componentry is simple and reliable when well maintained, with the Swift GTi possessing a simpler, naturally aspirated powerplant.

The bodies are lightly constructed and do not age well. The early model GTi, built from 1986-1988 (Suzuki or Holden), is hard to find as it had a much shorter build run than the later model car. Many would argue that the later face-lifted model is the best choice anyway, because of the superior chassis and further refinement, unless you are in the search for pure speed when the lighter, earlier model may still score.

Toyota Starlet GT/Glanza V

Typical of Toyota, the Starlet GT is a reliable little car. They sold very well and were produced in various forms until 1998, so the cars themselves are easy to find and parts for them are common. Because they are a reliable small hatch many are used as daily drivers, and clock up big distances. With enough around that you will likely have a choice, avoid modified ones and ones sporting high odometer readings. The engine and gearbox are solid units but not so the turbo, so it is important to check the turbo oil seals.

Specifications

Daihatsu Charade GTti
Production: 1987-1993, total 227,790
Engine: 993cc three-cylinder 12 valve twin-cam turbo, 75kW (101bhp)
Performance: 0-96.5kph (0-60mph) in 7.9 seconds. Top speed c.186kph (116mph)

Suzuki Swift GTi/Holden Barina GTi
Production: 1986-1996, total n/a
Engine: 1298cc four-cylinder 16-valve twin-cam, 75kW (101bhp)
Performance: 0-96.5kph (0-60mph) in 8.6 to nine seconds. Top speed 180-186kph (112-116mph)

Honda City Turbo
Production: 1982-1984, total n/a
Engine: 1237cc four-cylinder sohc turbo, 74kW (100bhp)
Performance: 0-96.5kph (0-60mph) in 8.5 seconds. Top speed 179kph (111mph)

Honda City Turbo 2
Production: 1984-1987, total n/a
Engine: 1237cc four-cylinder sohc turbo, 82kW (110bhp)
Performance: 0-96.5kph (0-60mph) in 8.5 seconds. Top speed 175kph (109mph)

Toyota Starlet GT/Glanza V
Production: 1990-1998/99, total n/a
Engine: 1331cc four-cylinder 16 valve dohc turbo, 97-99kW (130-133bhp)
Performance: 0-96.5kph (0-60mph) in 7.5 seconds. Top speed 192kph (119mph)

Words: Phillip and David Cass

As the first models of this car are 20 years old, they can now be road-registered in New Zealand

At the 1989 Tokyo Auto Show, Nissan debuted a new car that would single-handedly shake up the entire motoring world, and change the idea of what affordable performance meant forever — the BNR32 Nissan Skyline GT-R. Famously dubbed ‘Godzilla’ by motoring journalists due to its absolute dominance on both the road and the track worldwide, the BNR32 GT-R is a giant-killer with a huge following and an even bigger place in history.

Born at the Track

In the late ’80s, Nissan was heavily involved in Japanese Group A racing, but was struggling with its current and somewhat dated R31 Skyline GTS-Rs. These were eventually scrapped and the need to build an all-new, competition-destroying replacement gave birth to the BNR32 Skyline GT-R. This new machine simply blew everyone away, bristling with technology that simply hadn’t been seen before, not to mention a 373kW-plus, twin turbocharged 2.6-litre straight six, designated the RB26DETT.

As per Group A racing rules, Nissan needed to build at least 5000 GT-Rs to achieve homologation for the new car, which is the only reason the public ever got their hands on the Godzilla. After that initial production run of 5000 was snapped up over the space of a few weeks, Nissan made the decision to open up production indefinitely, eventually building over 43,000 examples before the model was succeeded by the unwieldy and less desirable R33 Skyline GT-R in 1994.

Easter Eggs Within

During the late ’80s and ’90s, Japanese manufacturers had a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ stipulating that no road car should be sold producing more than 206kW (276bhp) at the flywheel. This meant that although the RB26DETT motor was capable of huge power, it was strangled with restrictive intake and exhaust tracts, small turbos and low boost pressure levels in an attempt to get power levels as low as possible. Even with all those restrictions, the road-going GT-R was still producing around 246kW, so Nissan infamously resorted to flat out lies in order to get its new world-beater out onto the streets. On top of the understated power figures, as one could imagine, the choked nature of the GT-R also means that all any potential owner needs to do is reverse those restrictions with a few simple modifications, and they have themselves one seriously powerful car.

Buying Tips

Although great for the racers and the power hungry among us, that hidden power and racing prowess has made a completely factory standard R32 GT-R an absolute rarity, if not an impossible find. So, unless you somehow stumble upon an unmolested example, the likelihood is you will be looking at car with an after market exhaust, air filter and suspension at the very least.

To be clear, the GT-R is an all out sports car, so if you are looking to find a softly-driven, pampered example, stop right now. All GT-Rs have had a hard life, so the trick is finding one that has received the care to match. Thankfully, most owners are well aware of the importance of this car, and are very careful with their upkeep. This also bodes well for rust, which is near unheard of in a GT-R due to the fact that 90 per cent of these cars will have been garaged their entire life.

As the R32 is now approaching its 20th birthday, prices are slowly beginning to creep back up the scale, and you now won’t generally find one for under $20,000.

During its production run Nissan also produced a few thousand special edition GT-Rs — 560 Nismo Group A Evolutions, 221 N1 Race Versions, 1453 V-Specs and 1303 V-Spec IIs. Keep a keen eye out for these limited gems, especially the Group A Evolution and N1 Race Version, as they are very desirable and demand far higher prices at auction.

Although still heavily anchored within the realm of the modified car enthusiast, the GT-R looks set to become a legitimate and rare classic in the next few years, so if you can get your hands on one now, whilst prices are still reasonable, it might just be the best investment you have ever made.

Warnings

When looking at a potential GT-R, make sure to check the car’s history and VIN plate, as many enthusiasts do build replicas using lesser GTS-t and GTS-4 Skyline models, whilst other more shady folk bring in un-registerable examples from Japan, and swap VIN plates with another de-registered Nissan so the car can be entered into the system. This is illegal and can land the owner in serious hot water, whether they were aware of the chassis-chop or otherwise.

Nissan Skyline GT-R (BNR32) – Specifications

Built: 1989-1994, 43,394 built
Engine: 2600cc straight six cylinder, twin turbocharged, dohc, 24 valve 206kW (276bhp)
Body: Four-seater coupe
Performance: Electronically limited top speed — 190kph (124-134mph), 0-100kph under five seconds
NZ prices: Expect to pay over $20,000 for a tidy, street registrable GT-R.

Parts Supply

This is a hard one. Again due to the GT-R’s popularity and relative rarity, second hand parts are fairly expensive, so the chance of finding that steal-of-a-deal from someone who doesn’t know what they have is unlikely. Used parts are best sourced through private sellers found on Trade Me or the classified sections of Skyline club websites. Alternatively, Nissan still produces all R32 parts, all of which can be landed here in seven working days and although pricey, guarantee no problems down the track.
Representative Parts Prices*
GT-R (BNR32) bonnet $1500 new, $400-600 second hand
GT-R (BNR32) gearbox $5500 new, $800-1100 second hand
GT-R (BNR32) badge (a trophy for thieves) $145 new, $80-100 second hand
(* These prices are intended as a guide only and actual prices may vary.)

Clubs

As the Skyline GT-R maintains a huge following in New Zealand, there are a variety of clubs catering to owners, the biggest and oldest of which is Skylines Downunder. Its website can be found at
www.skylinesdownunder.com.

Words: Peter Kelly

This article is from NZ Classic Car issue 221. Click here to check it out.

In 1964, the idea of a Japanese high performance sedan meant almost a contradiction in terms

There’s no doubt that Japanese cars brought new standards to the automotive industry in the ’60s — they were well made, well equipped, most had radios and heaters as standard fittings, were reliable and represented great value for money. However, in Japan, where a blanket speed limit of 60kph existed until the ’60s, there wasn’t much call for high performance vehicles in the home market.

But in 1964, a car appeared that put itself on the map as a top-notch sports/racing sedan. Forty years later its heritage lives on, now attached to some of today’s genuine performance vehicles.

That 1964 car was the Prince Skyline GT. It came from an unlikely source, with its beginnings to be found in the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, established in 1952.

Tachikawa went into vehicle production, beginning with small electric-powered commercials. Somewhere along the way, Tachikawa Aircraft Company became the Prince Motor Company, named after Crown Prince Hirohito, the Japanese Emperor. By 1955, Prince had added the Skyline family car with a four-cylinder 1500cc motor to its range. A further addition came in 1961 with the larger, more luxurious six-cylinder Prince Gloria.

Breathing on Gloria

The Japanese government increased speed limits in 1964, and around that time, motor racing began to gain popularity in Japan. To raise its image, the Prince Company decided to go racing. But how to be competitive with a range consisting of a 1500cc family sedan and a heavy sixcylinder luxury car? The answer seemed simple — drop the six-cylinder engine into the smaller car.

Prince engineers, however, found the practicalities of the operation somewhat complicated. The Gloria six was a large motor, and the Skyline sedan was a smallish, Japanese family-style of car. To achieve the transplant, the Prince engineers added a 200mm extension ahead of the front bulkhead, thereby increasing both the wheelbase and overall length.

The Prince Skyline GT made its public debut at the Suzuka motor racing circuit in May 1964. Five Skyline GTs fronted up in the 1000-2000cc Grand Touring Car class. A Porsche won the race, ahead the Skyline GTs which fi lled the next five places.

In 1966, under pressure from the Japanese government to rationalise the car industry, the small Prince concern became part of the much larger Nissan organisation. Nissan continued to produce the Skyline GT under the Prince name until the model finished its run in 1968.

After the Nissan take-over, a third series of Skyline GTs appeared with several enhancements to the design, although the power output remained unchanged.

Perhaps the most signifi cant improvement was the fitting of a Prince-designed five-speed gearbox with an overdrive fifth gear. Other changes included standardising the previously optional limited slip differential, seat belts and flow-through ventilation. After the demise of the Prince name, Nissan still retained the Skyline moniker for its performance models, and it continues to grace some real performance cars almost 40 years later.

Skylines down under

Prince built the Skyline GT in right hand drive form only. Exports are thought to have been limited to about 300 sent to Australia and New Zealand between 1965 and 1968. The Skyline GT soon found its way into the clutches of contemporary motoring magazines. One test recorded its top speed at 179kph (111mph), an impressive fi gure at the time for what was in essence a Japanese family sedan. A Prince GT competed at the annual 500- mile race at Bathurst in 1966 and 1967 — A DNF in 1966, but one fi nished the course in 1967.

About 30 Prince Skyline GTs are thought to have survived in Australia. John Ellis owns one of them, and has had a painstaking restoration carried out on his car to bring it back as close as possible to its ex-factory condition. John bought a Prince Skyline GT just after he left school in the early 1970s. “I was looking to buy my fi rst car,” he recalls, “and our extended family and some family friends had a couple of Skyline GTs. They suggested that it would make something different for a young bloke’s first vehicle.

“I bought a non-runner and got it going, but then because of over-zealous tuning by a professional tuner it burnt a hole in a piston. With the ignorance of youth, I sold the car, not running, in the late ’70s. By the mid-1990s, I was living in Sydney and saw a Prince advertised for sale at Alstonville, in northern New South Wales. I bought that car, and used it for a few years. It was a bit rough around the edges, and I decided to improve it and began advertising in the wanted ads in Australian Classic Car for parts and information.

Shed-bound

“A chap rang from Canberra and said he had a Prince in his dad’s shed. It was part of a deceased estate, and it had been sitting unused for 10 years. His dad was a car enthusiast, and the Prince was completely original but very worn. I bought it, of course, and trailered it home. Through the Prince club I heard about the Prince museum at Gosford, north of Sydney, and the owner, Col Lee, got the car running and I then put it on club registration. “Then, in 1998, we moved to Townsville and the Prince just sat in a shed. In 1999 we moved to Batemans Bay, on the NSW south coast, and, of course, the Prince remained unused. We moved to Cooma in 2000.

“In 2002, I read an article in Australian Classic Car about a Prince Skyline GT owned by Barry Jarred in Queensland. That inspired me. I rang Barry, and he told me he’d had his car restored by Marque Restorations in Adelaide. On the basis that, if they had already done one Skyline GT, they would know something about them, I rang Gerard Miller at Marque Restorations — the short version of the story is that I put it on a truck and got it back in restored condition two years later.” Many of the problems faced by a restorer of a Prince Skyline GT revolve around the inability to source spares, and many parts had to be made from scratch for the restoration.

New pistons were unobtainable, so Gerard Miller had a sample of an oldone sent to a metallurgist for analysis todetermine its composition, and then had an ingot made in the correct specifi cation.

From that, the pistons were recast from a pattern. A sample of the carpet travelled the world looking for a match, finally finding an almost perfect replacement in New Zealand. The Prince Club has remade the tool rolls, and tyre pressure and jacking placards. Originally, John’s Skyline GT came with the optional 99-litre, boot-mounted, competition fuel tank that had provision for direct churn filling. There was no provision for external fi lling, as a blanking cap covered the place whre the fi ller neck would usually be located. The optional tank limits boot space, and the fi rst owner took it out and replaced it with a home-made tank for more luggage room. “When it came to the restoration, I had a normal fuel tank on hand, but Gerard made a few phone calls and was able to source an original racing tank. It really fi nishes off the car,” John says.

On the road

First impressions are that the interior accommodation was intended for a Japanese family. Adjusting the front seat to suit a 1.8-metre driver removes almost all of the rear seat legroom. Nevertheless, it’s possible to get quite comfortable behind the ’60s-style wood rim, alloy-spoked wheel. The driver is confronted with a full set of instruments, including calibrated oil pressure and temperature gauges. The lever controlling the four-speed gearbox has an odd pattern — first is to the left and back, right and forward for second, straight back for third and towards

The Prince Gloria motor came in two capacities: 1998cc and 2494cc. No doubt mindful of the various engine size classes used in motor racing, Prince engineers chose the smaller motor for the transplant.

Prince produced a GTA-model Skyline using the Gloria motor in standard (78kW, or 105bhp) form, but the performance version was known as the GTB, and Prince set about making the 2.0-litre six perform for this application. The compression ratio of the square (75mm bore and stroke) engine went up from 8.8:1 to 9.3:1, triple Weber 40DCOE-18 carburettors put the mixture in and an extractor exhaust helped to get it out. All this boosted power from 78kW in its Gloria and GT A applications to 95kW (127bhp) in the Skyline GT B form.

The motor was mated to a licence-built ZF fully synchronised four-speed gearbox. The Skyline GT retained the coil and wishbone front suspenson and rear leaf springs of the four-cylinder car, although a rear torque rod was added, along with heavier components, and anti-roll bars front and back. Steering was by the much-favoured Japanese system of recirculating ball. Power assisted Dunlop disc brakes were fi tted to the front of the car, with drums at the rear.

A brief drive confi rmed that the Skyline GT runs at least as well as it must have done when it fi rst hit the road back in 1965.

It’s no problem to drive this competition- inspired car around town. Despite the three dual-throat Webers, the Skyline GT will potter about in top gear at 1500rpm, then accelerate smoothly to whatever speed you might like — or is legal!

Pressing on the throttle produces a smooth surge of acceleration in the lower gears, with the six running easily up to 5500rpm — redline is at an indicated 6500rpm. The ride is firm but not uncomfortable and corners presented no problems at the modest pace imposed by local speed limits. The steering is accurate, not always a characteristic of recirculating ball systems.

Given his time over, John says he is not sure whether he would go down the Prince road again. “I think that I might rather have something more mainstream and exotic,” he laughs. “I’m not sure I would really want to part with the Prince.

It’s now a most unusual car, and very much part of the development of the Japanese car story. I guess that everything is for sale, but my price for the Prince would be this — think of a value that would be expensive for a car like this, and then multiply it by five!”

Words: Col Gardner Photos: Col Gardner & Jon Ellis

During the ’60s, several manufacturers — following the lead set by sports car racing — produced road-going mid-engined sports cars. One of the first of these was Rene Bonnet’s pioneering Matra Djet (1964-’68). Next on the scene was Lotus with its Europa, which enjoyed a long production run from 1966 to 1975. Matra would release further mid-engined cars in later years — the 530, Bagheera and Murena. However, offerings from Matra and Lotus were relatively low volume models, and it wasn’t until the 1969 release of the VW-Porsche 914 that significant numbers of mid-engined sports cars became available for mass consumption — although well over 100,000 914s were produced (along with 3332 of the six-cylinder 914/6), all these mid-engined cars were beyond the reach of many.

This would all change in 1972 when Fiat introduced its cleverly packaged X1/9 — truly a mid-engined sports car for the masses. The Fiat group also introduced a big brother for the X1/9 — the Lancia Montecarlo — in 1975 but, once again, the Lancia was a more expensive proposition.

As such, when Toyota first came up with the idea of a small, inexpensive mid-engined sports car in 1976 the only real competition came from Fiat’s X1/9 — although, by the time of the MR2’s release in 1984, Pontiac had just released its mid-engined Fiero; the US car would be ultimately unsuccessful.

Toyota’s idea for a mid-engined sports car had originated in 1976, but work did not begin in earnest on the car until several years later, in 1979. Apart from the limited production Toyota Sports 800 (a tiny, air-cooled sports car produced from 1965-’70), and the 2000GT (1967-’70), Toyota had never before tried its hand at designing a large volume sports car, but it quickly spied a gap in the market for a cheap one.

On its release in 1984, the Toyota MR2 was in almost every way a more accomplished effort than its predecessors. It was a livelier yet more economical performer, handled well, was keenly priced, and Toyota reliability was another trump card. No wonder it was a sales success — and no wonder it remains an interesting modern classic purchase in the 21st century.

Angular Appeal

The MR2’s angular styling and focus on driving pleasure quickly led to booming sales, despite its less than practical design — the X1/9, for instance, was a far more clever package. The mid-engined layout gave the MR2 a nicely balanced chassis that contributed to an enjoyable driving experience; there was (supposed) design input from Lotus staff; and ex-racer Dan Gurney helped with test driving, so it was no wonder the handling was excellent — though a tendency towards oversteer at the limit was a limiting factor. The relatively low weight of 1000kg greatly assisted its dynamic ability and performance.

Most cars were powered by Toyota’s 4A-GE 1.6-litre 16-valve twin-cam motor producing 91kW (122bhp), with a supercharged 108kW (145bhp) variant of the same motor released as an option in 1986, and a Japanese market only 1.5-litre single-cam poverty pack.

The 4A-GE engine made its power high in the rev range and thrived on 6000rpm-plus activity, though the supercharged car was quite the opposite, providing significantly more low down torque but perhaps losing some of the rev-happy character of the normally aspirated motor.

Buying Notes

Sadly, the AW11 MR2s rust like nobody’s business, most notably in the spare wheel well (in the ‘frunk’ — front boot to older folk) and the wheel arches, especially the rear arches behind the doors. This rust is difficult to fix due to the car’s body design and construction, so buying one with previous rust treatment is a must.

The AW11s are famed for their handling, but on the limit oversteer can catch out inexperienced drivers, so check the vehicle thoroughly for accident damage.

Mechanically the MR2 is generally reliable, but check the engine for smoke. Parts are not difficult to find as the engine is shared with numerous other Toyota models, but the engine bay is notoriously difficult to work in. The supercharger is not a strong unit and can fail after less than 100,000km, and the supercharged engine can also have trouble with the drive belts for the supercharger and water pump. The gearbox on later (1986 on) cars is a better designed unit, the earlier model tending to jump out of fifth gear with wear. You may find automatic MR2s, but as with any automatic sports car, the enjoyment is sapped by removing a large amount of the tactile sensation of driving, so always go for a manual if you plan on enjoying a winding road in your MR2.

The AW11 is generally good for in excess of 200kph with care and regular maintenance, but even so, the later model you can find the better.

Our pick would probably be the normally aspirated 16-valve motor as it loses little in overall performance to the rarer, more expensive supercharged model, and the delivery of its power is better matched to the car, plus they are easier to find, tend to be cheaper and the engine is likely to be more reliable.

Parts Supply

Most mechanical parts — shared with lesser Toyota models — are generally available through Toyota’s own service centres. Those looking for exterior trim and panels will need to let their fingers do the walking as they search the internet for replacement parts. Parts specialists such as Parts World (www.partsworld.co.nz) stock many second-hand panels and parts for early MR2s.
Representative Parts Prices*
MR2 (AW11) bonnet $95
MR2 (AW11) FR outer guard $65
MR2 (AW11) windscreen $125
MR2 (AW11) rear screen $100
(*These prices are intended as a guide only and prices may vary.)

Specifications

Toyota MR2 Mk1
Built: 1984-1989, 166,104 built
Engine: 1587cc four cylinder, dohc, 16 valve 91kW/ supercharged 106kW (122/143bhp),
Bodies: Two-seater coupe
Performance: Top speed 195/215kph(124-134mph), 0-100kph 7.6/7.0 seconds
NZ Prices: Expect to pay $3-3.5K for a tidy unblown MR2 and up to $5K for a supercharged model.

Clubs

All MR2 and MR-S models are enthusiastically catered for by the MR2 Owners Club of New Zealand (MR2OCNZ), which was established in 1994. With regular newsletters, organised runs, track-days and events, the MR2OCNZ now has over 200 members nationwide and remains the first calling point for all MR2 enthusiasts.

Words: Allan Walton Research: Philip and David Cass

This article is from Classic Car issue 220. Click here to check it out.

On February 2, 1967, the very first New Zealand-assembled Toyota — a Corona RT40 — rolled off the production line, its arrival officially marked by a ceremony attended by the then Minister of Finance, Harry Lake. Assembly would be limited to 300 cars per year, and the Corona was sold for £570

When Toyota New Zealand launched its latest Corolla in 2007, not only was it the 10th generation Corolla, but its debut also marked 40 years of Corolla production world-wide. Regarded as a people’s car — in much the same way as the Volkswagen Beetle was when finally introduced to the public in Germany during 1946 — the Corolla has been well publicised as the most successful car of all time, boasting over 32 million sales. Some 200,000 of those were in New Zealand.

The first generation Corolla was sold in Japan in 1967, then introduced in New Zealand during 1969.

I owned my first Toyota, if memory serves me correctly, around 1979 — a 1977 Corona 2000 SE. I recall trading it in on the first ever new shape Corona XT that I had seen for sale second-hand while on holiday in Timaru. The Corona XT and XR models from 1979-’82 were a great car for their time. I recently spotted a cream XT five-door liftback in immaculate condition and, even after some 28 years, this model still looked quite smart.

After my initial purchase of the beige-coloured XT in Timaru, I began to deal in and play around with XT and XRs. I always bought beige/tan examples, selling them after I had spruced them up. These Coronas included satin black window frame surrounds, red and chrome GS badges on the front guards and boot lid, black pin stripes, wheel trims, stainless steel splash guards and number plate surrounds, mud flaps, Perspex headlight protectors and other minor enhancements. They sold like hot cakes.

Future Toyota Classics

It’s only a matter of time before we see Toyotas attending classic car events. While I have spotted several early Japanese cars — including the Datsun 120Y SSS, 180B coupe and even a mint condition Sunny — I can’t recall any Toyotas attending a local classic car event. My prediction is that the larger and more luxurious Toyotas, such as the Crown, President V8 and Cressida, will become tomorrow’s classics, particularly the coupe versions of those Crowns and early Cressidas. I guess we would also throw early Celicas into this mix.

On the June 24 1994 I purchased a 1970 Corolla KE11. This particular example was a very rare two-door model. They were produced for the Australian market, where mine was sold new. The original owner, Dawn Bayly, returned to her home town of Christchurch in February of 1974, bringing the Toyota with her. A feature of this car is the fitting of the icon Aussie exterior sun-visor, plus many Australian-related transfers. While the car’s blue interior is still in extremely good original condition, the white bodywork is due for some cosmetic rust repair and repaint. Once it is refurbished, I intend to feature this Corolla in a future article on classic and rare Toyotas.

Family Corolla History

My mother, Jessie, purchased a 1974 Corolla in a very unusual colour — a cross between blue and turquoise, perhaps best described as a kind of duck-egg blue. Mum bought this Toyota when it was about one year old and retained ownership up to the time of her passing away in May 1994. In appreciation for maintaining this car for 19 years, I inherited her immaculate and original Corolla KE20. Having nowhere to keep it undercover, I reluctantly sold it about six months later. The new owner lived in Wellington, and I am sorry to record that this was the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, the car no longer exists — this is one car I now definitely regret selling.

A couple of points of interest regarding Corollas within my family come to mind. My son Paul’s first experience on the race track was when he drove a few practice laps in his 1980 DX Corolla at a track hire day at Ruapuna in 1985. From racing his RX-7 at a classic meeting, he later progressed through the classes to eventually race in the big banger OSCA class.

In 2003 I purchased a 1989 Corolla five-door hatchback for my grand-daughter, Niki, while she was still at Avonside Girl’s High School. The car’s mileage was 294,437km and I paid $1000. Three and a half years later — with 325,243km on the clock and after she had bought a 1994 Toyota Levin coupe with her own money — Niki sold the Corolla for $955. Depreciation of only $45 in three and a half years!

During her ownership, the car gave no major problems, only requiring general maintenance — indeed, Corollas are well known for their reliability over all models, worldwide.

1963 Toyota Toyopet Publica

This cute-looking Toyota is believed to be the oldest known Toyota in New Zealand

The production of a people’s car — small and economical enough to find a place in the lives of working Japanese — has been a central theme for Toyota engineers since the company started. Planning for its first example began in 1954 and it took seven years to complete.

The first model appeared as a two-door sedan in June 1961 with an innovative air-cooled 697cc engine of 21kW (28bhp).

It was called the ‘Publica’ domestically and the Toyota 1000 for export, due to the export model’s 1.0-litre engine.

The example here is a 1963 700. It is actually the oldest known Toyota in New Zealand, and was privately imported from Western Samoa — hence the 697cc engine, instead of the 1.0-litre export engine.

This particular car is a deluxe model, introduced in July 1963 to add sophistication to economy, and its addition to the range boosted sales by an incredible 70 per cent over the previous year.
Looking at this well restored 700, it’s hard to imagine the impact a little car like this would have on the market.

Gonzo

Cable-Price Toyota, of Greenlane in Auckland, purchased the car in a poor state from a dealer’s yard in Papatoetoe, with the name ‘GONZO’ painted across the bonnet.

From the front, the Toyota does look a little like the Muppet of the same name, and so the tag has stuck to the extent of personalised plates to that effect.

Cable-Price apprentices restored the car’s mechanicals over an 18-month period, and during the rebuild they were surprised to find that many parts — including service manuals and the handbook — were still available new from Toyota in Japan. The body was restored by Lyall Panelbeaters, and the upholstery is by Johnson & Young.

This 700 is powered by an ohv, two-cylinder, air-cooled and horizontally opposed engine which is coupled to a two-stage Toyoglide automatic transmission.

Gonzo has only covered 89,657km (55,710 miles), and its condition is a credit to all the individuals who were involved in bringing her back to almost as she left the showroom floor in 1963. Used mainly as a promotional vehicle, this is the only example of the 700 in New Zealand.

The Publica was available over almost a five-year model run, with a station wagon introduced in June 1962, a convertible version in 1963, a pick-up in February 1964 and an aerodynamic sports car, the sports 800, in April 1965.

This now very rare car is owned by Marcel and Royce Facoory of West Harbour, Auckland. Marcel tells me he was working at Cable-Price Toyota in 1993 when the company was sold and the Toyopet Publica was offered for sale, and he duly purchased Gonzo. Since then it has been placed in some Toyota dealership showrooms as a promotional car. It is currently on display at the

Monterey Park Motor Museum, Hobsonville Road, Auckland.

1969 Toyota Corolla KE10

This early Corolla has been owned by just one family since 1980

Allan Bates of Concord in Dunedin commenced employment in 1961 at the age of 20 with Otago Motors, a large Vauxhall-Bedford dealership in Dunedin. At that stage there were approximately 16 people allocated to the spares division. Eighteen years later, in 1979, the dealership changed to a Toyota franchise. This had the result of the parts team being reduced from around 16 to just five. Allan was fortunate to be one of the lucky employees to be kept on. He spent the last 16 years — prior to retiring in 2001 — as spares manager.

One day, while serving an elderly gentleman — Graham Byers — who had come in to the spares department for parts for his 1969 KE10 Corolla, Allan asked; “If you ever want to sell this car, please let me know, as I would be interested in buying her.”

Around a year later, Byers came back asking if Allan still wished to purchase the Corolla. This was back in 1980, when the car had travelled just 14,201km. Allan duly purchased the red Toyota. His mother was in need of a car at that time, so Allan gave it to her. She drove it for a further 27,849km before passing away.

Allan has now owned the car for a total of 28 years, with the odo reading now at a still very low 63,722km. All the Corolla’s upholstery and carpet is still original and in excellent condition. Even the Toyota dealership sticker, placed on the dashboard prior to delivery when new, is still in place and unmarked.

In 1969 radial tyres did not exist and, consequently, this car was fitted with 600×12 crossply tyres from new.

“I went to put radials on only to find there is no direct cross-over, so I had to fit 155x12s which look very small on the wheels: 600×12 cross to 155×13, so I could have fitted later KE30 Corolla wheels, but they don’t cater for hub caps which my car has.”

This model Corolla was the first of this shape to come to New Zealand, and our featured car could well be the oldest Corolla in the country. Are there any more 1969 Model KE10s left here, or have they all gone to the wreckers?

When Allan’s mother was driving the car, the radiator sprung a leak while travelling between Waikouaiti and Palmerston. The motor overheated and eventually seized. Allan replaced it with a low mileage 1000cc Starlet motor. The motors look identical externally.

“How much better Japanese technology has advanced since 1969,” Allan said, “as I also own a 1000cc Morris Minor and that doesn’t go anywhere near as well.

“Very often if my wife or myself are out in the car, we will find a note under the wipers saying — ‘If you ever want to sell this car please give us a call as we would be very interested.’”

However, Allan is adamant that his Corolla is definitely not for sale.

1969 Toyota Corona RT40

On December 16, 1969, Hector Kerr of Linwood, Christchurch, purchased a new Corona RT40 from the then Toyota agent — Croydon Motors

On the first day of October in 1977 Hector passed away, leaving the Toyota to his wife, Mavis. At this stage it had travelled only 49,695km (30,823 miles). Her son, Warren, then purchased the car from his mother. This Corona is still totally original in every respect. Even all the factory-supplied tools are still in their vinyl kit, all in immaculate condition. The maintenance service coupon book shows that Warren’s dad had it regularly serviced at Croydon Motors up to 1971. At this point the company was sold to Wrightcars, which continued to service the car for the following 12 months.
Well-known South Island racing legend, Trevor Crowe, was in the service department at this time, his signature featuring on the service coupons. SX Garage in Essex Street, Linwood, serviced the car from 1972 until 1977.

During the first 20 years of ownership Warren used the Corona very rarely, essentially it was only driven when WoF time arrived. However, recently, due to lack of use, the brakes seized, which entailed a complete overhaul. Now Warren has begun to drive the Toyota on a regular basis.

Believe it or not the Corona is still fitted with crossply tyres as per original. Warren intends to replace these with a new set of radials. I have assured him that he will notice immense improvement in both the straight-line tracking and cornering ability once radials are fitted.

In my opinion this RT40 Corona is highly likely to be the most original example left in the world. With the odometer reading at only 88,343km (54,894 miles) at time of writing, this car may also have travelled the least distance of any other 1969 Corona. Warren has never attended a classic rally in the car, but now intends to use it mainly for this purpose. The events he intends to participate in include the annual Twin Rivers Classic Car Parade, the Annual North Canterbury Classic Tour, and the annual Ashburton Rotary day out for classic vehicles, to name just a few. The Corona will be joining the ever-increasing number of early Japanese classics coming onto the scene of late.

Other than the Vintage Car Club, there is no car club that caters for Warren’s 1969 Corona. Perhaps the time has come for a club to be established, nationwide, to cater for the ever-increasing numbers of well preserved Japanese vehicles recently coming to light. There are, in fact, a number of early Japanese classics currently being restored in Christchurch. I also know of some being held in storage for future restoration. Most, but not all, are the more rare-models — coupes, two-door hard-tops and sports models.

1974 Toyota Corolla KE20

Bryan and Margaret Ross of Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast are the proud owners of this 1974 Toyota Corolla KE20

Mrs Phoebe Wilson of Upper Hutt purchased this car new from Cable-Price, the Toyota agent at Porirua, on October 18, 1974. According to the car’s service book, which is still in the manufacturer’s holding slot, she took delivery of the Corolla on October 22. The first two services (1000 and 5000km) were carried out by Cable-Price, Porirua. However, from November 1976 (9936km) until February 1984 (35,235km), the car was serviced by Whittaker Automotive of Upper Hutt.

Bryan and Margaret purchased the Toyota from Mrs Wilson on November 15, 2001, with the odo showing 55,657km. A friend of the couple, who had serviced the Corolla after Whittaker Motors, told Bryan of the pending sale. Mrs Wilson was no longer able to drive and was understandably reluctant to part with her blue Corolla. When Bryan drove away from her house she had tears in her eyes.

The original owner’s manual and touch-up paint are still in the glove box, while the ‘Cable-Price Toyota’ transfer is still affixed to the bottom of the rear window.

Bryan and Margaret have three daughters who love to go for rides in the Toyota, which the family plans for once a month. The eldest girl, Olivia, is now aged 17, and Bryan is hoping to teach her to drive in a year or two. The same will apply with Gabriella aged 14, and Natasha aged 12, when their eligibility comes around.

The car attracts a lot of attention when out on the family Sunday outing, and the couple have turned down several attractive offers by potential purchasers.

Toyota Mechanic

Bryan started work as a motor mechanic in 1976 at Rossmore Toyota of Upper Hutt, a company which his father owned. Bryan can clearly recall working on dozens of these KE20 Corollas, so he has a bit of a soft spot for them.

Recalling his days working on Toyotas, Bryan says, “Toyotas were very easy cars to train as a mechanic on as they were mechanic-friendly. I remember doing the automatic transmission on a ’73 Crown Coupe, which was an almost exact copy of a Borg Warner 35 transmission. I was still an apprentice at the time and it was my first transmission overhaul. It was absolutely perfect, changing at the precise speed that it was supposed to and no leaks. I was very happy. I also remember doing a complete engine overhaul on an RT40 Corona. I would like to own one of those now, as they are really nice to drive and very cool.”

1974 Toyota Crown Super Saloon

The Crown Super Saloon was the equivalent of the modern Lexus, one of the most luxurious cars manufactured by Toyota during the early to mid ’70s

These cars competed with the likes of Ford’s Fairmont and Holden’s Statesman for local buyers looking for a more luxurious vehicle. Having owned, new, both the XA Fairmont and HQ Statesman during 1973 and 1974, and now this example of the Toyota Super Saloon, I am in the fortunate position to compare all three models. Although I have to say that, despite the fact I am a Ford man — having owned 38 Fords since the age of 16 — I did not like the Fairmont as much as the Statesman.

Our featured example was purchased new on January 1, 1974, at Queenstown, by Edward John Willetts. I have learned from several people who were associated with the maintenance of Toyotas during his period of ownership that Mr Willetts was an extremely fussy gentleman, and would go to some lengths to make sure his ‘pet’ Crown was looked after when requiring service maintenance.

He kept this car in as new condition until his death in 1992. The odo reading at this stage was only 33,453km.

A lifetime friend of Mrs Willetts’, Irene Crawford, bought the Crown from her on September 7 of that year. I subsequently purchased the car from Irene on September 12, 2000, at 92,217km. It was just a coincidence that the day also happened to be my 60th birthday!

These Super Saloons, which were assembled in Japan, were a higher-specified model than the normal Crown. Their most redeeming feature was the beautiful brocade upholstery, as opposed to the plain vinyl of the base Crown. Our feature car also has power-assisted steering and brakes, electric windows and automatic lock-up on all doors once about 20kph is reached. Little luxury features include a self-seeking AM/FM radio with both front and rear speakers and fade control. Even the rear seat passengers can control the radio. I was amazed to find the car was also fitted with a factory eight-track stereo player. Eyeball courtesy lights must have been quite advanced for 1973, as would be the safety red lights on each door. With smoking quite prevalent back in the ’70s, it is not too startling to find that several cigarette lighters and ashtrays are also fitted. However, judging by the condition of the entire car, I am not surprised to see that they appear to have never been used!

This car is a real pleasure to drive. So smooth in every way. The wipers are completely silent, as are the electric window motors. Wide arm rests both front and rear add to the relaxed feeling, whether driving or being chauffeured. I recently took a friend of mine, Malcolm Graham, for a short demonstration ride. Malcolm knows quality automobiles when he sees them, having been the owner of a 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and currently being the proud owner of a 1994 Bentley Turbo R.

Malcolm was very impressed not only with the Crown’s overall condition and originality, but its sheer quality. It may not be in the same league as his Bentley, but bear in mind that this Toyota was designed and built some 21 or 22 years before Malcolm’s upper-crust car, not to mention the price difference when new, or now!

Perhaps if there is some downside to using this Toyota on a regular basis, it would be its economy. Compared to today’s modern vehicles the Crown is thirsty. The 2.6-litre motor, coupled to the three-stage automatic, returns only an estimated 14.8l/100km (19mpg). However, as I use this cruiser on only very special occasions, that is not an issue.

My Crown will shortly be placed in a new museum in Christchurch which contains over 200 cars — although I will retain ownership of this Toyota.

1984 Toyota Cressida

In the March 2009 issue of NZ Classic Car I wrote a diary entitled Classic Central South Island Tour. This was about a trip Lorraine and I did in our camper through the central lower South Island in November of 2008. On day seven, while passing through the township of Waimate, we spotted a green 1963 Vauxhall Victor. This very original car belonged to Mr Ray Collett. We illustrated a photo of Ray with his Victor on page 80, and I mentioned that he also owned a future classic, that being his 1984 Toyota Cressida. These luxury — for the time — big cruisers drive just superb, albeit down on power compared with today’s big sixes.

Ray Collett was born in Invercargill on May 26, 1926. Educated at Invercargill Primary, followed by a year at Technical College, Ray left school to begin work in the sawmilling industry, where he stayed for his entire working life. Over the years he has owned many cars, mainly the Vauxhall marque, dating back to the old Vauxhall 10/4, 14/6 and so forth.

The 1963 Victor mentioned earlier Ray purchased from his father in June of 1978. He retained ownership right up to about seven months ago, selling it to John Stewart of Christchurch. This Victor now resides in the Stewart Family Collection with about 300 other classic cars.

The Toyota Cressida illustrated here, was purchased by Ray when new, from Timaru Toyota on March 16, 1984. While Ray can’t recall the precise price, he says it was just over $26,000.
While the Cressida was under warranty it was driven back to Timaru for its check-ups and servicing. However, since then Whitehorse Motors of Waimate has carried out all the work and servicing required. Not that there has been much in the way of repair work needed. Typical of Toyota vehicles worldwide, Ray’s Cressida has had very little go wrong with it in his 26 years of ownership.
With the odo at 143,475km at time of writing, 84-year-old Ray cannot recall any problem cropping up in all that time. My bet is that, providing this future classic received all its regular up-keep servicing, you can double that distance before any major mechanical work is required. While I have seen a very small number of coupes in the model preceding this car’s shape, that being the first Cressida in New Zealand, the square-ish 1979-’82 models, I have never seen a coupe in this model. Did Toyota produce them?

Words: Trevor Stanley-Joblin, Photos: Sean Craig, Adam Croy, Bryan Ross, and Trevor Stanley-Joblin

This article is from Classic Car 231. Click here to check it out.

We’ve raised the contentious issue of when a car can be considered a classic, or potential classic, in earlier issues. If you say advanced old age is a must, turn the page now. If not, you’ll acknowledge Toyota’s Corolla is well on the way to becoming a classic

The Corolla one of the world’s most popular cars even in its standard iterations, but rarity’s the clincher. Back in the ‘80s there was a GT version of the Corolla, a three-door car assembled or imported built-up. Toyota NZ saw the potential and built a five-door version — New Zealand was the only country to get it. Some 180 were built.

How many are left? It’s hard to say but Anna and Kerry Hammington, who own number 134, have spotted about 65 over the ten years they’ve had their car (and jotted each registration number down!).

Early Corollas were powered by a single-cam 1295cc motor boasting 53kW. The next, 1988 generation boosted that to a 1.6-litre twin-cam, the 4A-F engine with 70kW, but the GT was the hottie. The 4A-GE dohc motor, available in Japan on a rear-wheel-drive Corolla coupe and slotted amidships in the MR2 and in the Formula Atlantic single-seater racing cars, earned a reputation in racing and rallying. Toyota had aimed for a quieter, smoother, high revving unit that offered low down grunt, efficient combustion and low maintenance.

The GT had a five-speed gearbox but there were no changes to gearing. It felt low-geared at speed — around 3300rpm at 100kph in fifth — but the benefit was good response and pick-up. We’re talking hot stuff — four-wheel disc brakes weren’t yet common and this was the first Toyota powerplant to use an electronic fuel injection system.

Toyota launched the GT hatch in 1985, at $24,995 including seats trimmed in NZ leather. A facelift and a price hike followed in 1986, and by early 1987 the price of the three-door had reached $35,000 — the five door, with its power steering, cost even more.

WHEN IT WAS NEW

Richard Bosselman, Manawatu Standard motoring writer and the first private owner of the fivedoor car pictured here, remembers. “We sold our house in Wanganui and bought the car. We had some money left over for the move to New Plymouth… I can’t remember what I paid for it but they were a pricey car, certainly the most expensive Corolla. That was July 1987, when it was nine months old and with 10,500km on the clock.” The price no doubt reflected the work that had gone into its development. “I recall Toyota saying the bib spoiler was designed in NZ and wind-tested at the DISR lab in Lower Hutt. Apparently it had a small wind tunnel, and TNZ tried various shapes until it sorted one that kept the nose down and directed air to the front brakes. Well, in theory, anyway.

“It was such a neat engine, it still is. I think it’s the best engine Toyota ever made. The power’s not big by today’s standards, but it had heaps of character. It felt bigger than it was and the handling was good, it had good balance. It was quite economical if you wanted to drive it that way, but because it was so much firmer than the standard Corolla you tended to get a few rattles despite the fact the build quality was pretty good. You had to keep the leather up or it went hard; I used a leather conditioner I got from a saddlery. I spent a Sunday every month on it, all day — I’d lather it on in the morning and let it soak in. At the end of the day you had to buff it up — the car was off the road for a day, you couldn’t go anywhere in it!”

Bosselman sold the car after his parents had a wee biff in it. “I was never happy with the repair and went off it after that. I should have kept it but I sold it so I could buy another house. It depreciated quite a bit, Kerry paid about half what I did. “The thing about those cars was there was nothing built like them in NZ — Toyota NZ really took a risk with them. But their performance, for what they were, was pretty astounding. I’ve talked to Chris Amon about them, and he said of all the cars he worked on this gave him the most satisfaction. It was the car they had to do the most work on to get it to do what they wanted it to do, as Japan didn’t have a car like that, and the whole thing worked so well.”

Bosselman sold the car for 12 grand in May 1991, with 59,000km on the clock, to the Hammingtons. Kerry made the initial decision to buy. Anna didn’t like it; “I didn’t like the brown interior, didn’t like it from the passenger seat — the ride is quite firm. But once I hopped into the driver’s seat, I loved it.” Which is lucky, as it’s her car. “Other cars now feel floppy, even brand new — this one feels so tight. “Cars are a very personal thing, you don’t realise until you’ve connected with one. My first car was a Consul 315 — very wallowy, but it had lots of room for the kids and I just loved it. I had a 180B Datsun after that, but didn’t like it. I love this one.”

She likes how well the car goes; “You take it for granted because you drive it all the time — only when you hop into another do you realise how peppy mine is. It was a nightmare giving the kids driving lessons in it! They had no finesse. They’d step on it, the revs would soar and they’d stall — it was too touchy. Stalling a car’s not cool for a 16-year-old.”

JULIA’S ’87 COROLLA

Kerry and Anna bemoan ‘boy racers’ making changes in the search for the point of difference, but would be impressed by Julia Kitchingman, owner of the blue, 220,545km three-door. The 21-year old’s had her 1987 car since January last year, when she bought it for $3000 with 192,000 on the clock. “The mods include extractors, a full exhaust system. It was really tidy, the right price and though the kays are up there now, Toyota motors are really reliable, they just keep going. It’s turned out to be car I can’t see myself getting rid of. It’s got character, and it’s really fun to drive.”

And she should know, she flies over the Wainuiomata hill every day — “a lot of cars die and go at snail’s pace over it.” Her family is a lifetime member of the Hutt Valley Autoclub: “I’ve entered it in one event, a sealed autocross with my father and I taking turns to drive, and recently lightened the flywheel and got a heavy duty clutch put in. It’s now a lot zippier and reacts quicker in high range. “I would like to get some new wheels for it. I’m not planning any major physical changes as it’s becoming a classic car — or at least a sought-after car — because of what it is, not its age, so anything I do to it will be bolton changes, and I’ll keep the originals.”

TOYOTA’S NEW GT

Which is where the new Corolla GT comes in. Like its ancestors, it’s a Corolla with a hotter engine and other goodies to spice up the deal. But could it live up to the legend? After all, a quick drive in the two early GTs revealed cars which pull hard to over 7000rpm, that sound rorty, hold you snugly in exaggeratedly shaped leather seats and handle well for cars of the time.

Julia hadn’t been able to come up from Wellington but Anna slid into the sporty, if less so than the older GT’s, seat and headed for the horizon. This engine is the high-revving 1.8-litre Celica unit outputting 140kW at 7600rpm and 180Nm at 6800, mated to a sixspeed box. Not surprisingly, Anna liked its responsiveness. “It’s very peppy and tight. It handles very well.”

Kerry also liked it as it’s similar in character to the old car. “It wasn’t teeth-chattering harsh, there’s a nice little bit of engine noise — it’s the first time I’ve driven a six-speed and it’s pretty busy. It certainly turns it on when you get to 6000rpm, but having found how impressive that was my over-riding thought was I couldn’t imagine driving it in that fashion very often.” Anna added, “It feels nice and tight and firm, which makes me feel safer on the road. I’d have one,” but — “You’re not getting one!” Kerry quickly replied.

So is it a styling exercise? A cynical marketing ploy to give baby boomers that nostalgic feeling? Nope. The tuned suspension and this engine alone should dispatch that accusation — adding character to a model that can otherwise be accused of being bland, albeit well built and efficient.

Specs

Words: Blair Bartels Photos: Dan Wakelin Motorsport Photos: Euan Cameron

Blair checks out a Nissan that was once a front-line rally car — and which is still competing in classic rallying events today.

In 1983, the FIA changed the face of rallying. It demolished the current system and introduced groups A and B. Group B required the build of just 200 cars for homologation, compared with the 400 required for Group A, the previous top class. The class instantly became dominated by Audi with the Quattro, and Lancia with its 037. Also joining the mix, but not quite as competitive, was Japanese manufacturer Nissan.

Son of Silvia

Nissan which had tasted some success in longer-distance events such as the East-African Safari with the 280ZX, decided to get involved in what seemed to be a rather exciting form of rallying, and started building a car based on the Silvia. That car had recently been moved out of production, however, it had been built with a 2.0-litre, fuel-injected engine known as the FJ20. A modified chassis was developed and given the code BS110 (B for Group B). Also new for the new car was the engine, the based on the FJ20, the FJ24. The FJ24 was a 2.4-litre four cylinder with double overhead camshafts, and a high compression ratio of 11.0:1 thanks to much shorter pistons. The FJ24 also replaced the fuel injection system with twin 50mm Solex side draught carburettors. Once this engine was mated to the BS110 chassis, Nissan’s Group B project, the 240RS, was born.

The car made its world championship debut at the 1983 Rally de Portugal, and was driven to eighth place overall by Briton Terry Kaby after his team-mate, Timo Salonen, retired with gearbox problems. By the time of the car’s next world championship outing, the East-African Safari of the same year, half a dozen 240RSs were entered, including cars for local aces Shekhar Mehta and Mike Kirkland, as well as Finn Timo Salonen. However, all three succumbed to engine failure. All was not lost for the Japanese manufacturer though, with another local, Jayant Shah, bringing the car home for fourth.

Its next two outings brought two sixth placings for Tony Pond in the Tour de Corse and Shekhar Mehta in the Acropolis Rally.

1983 Rally New Zealand

The next round, in New Zealand, proved to be the best round of the season for Nissan. Three cars were entered, for Timo Salonen, Shekhar Mehta and local man Reg Cook.

The end result was Salonen’s first, and best, finish for the season, powering his way to second behind the Lancia 037 of Walter Rörhl. Backing him up in fourth was Kenyan Shekhar Mehta, and Reg Cook drove his car to seventh overall. Nissan’s season finished at Salonen’s home event, the 1000 Lakes in Finland. Salonen didn’t disappoint, finishing eighth and first naturally aspirated car on the fast rally. The good results towards the end of the season rewarded Nissan with fourth in the manufacturer’s race.

Also running in the 1983 Rally New Zealand was Tony Teesdale. He had a Ron McMillan-prepared 2.0-litre Nissan Silvia. However, after the 1983 season it was decided that this needed to become a 240RS.

The car was run for one more season by Teesdale, but before this it went on a diet, losing 100kg as well as having a power transplant, the FJ20 out for the 194kW FJ24. The new and improved Silvia had a promising debut in the Woodhill rally, coming home second. However, disaster struck at the first national championship round in Tokoroa, with an oil pump failure causing a DNF and no points. After this event Teesdale took the car to the Ashley Forest rally sprint, ending up fourth overall. Teesdale then joined the Subaru team for the Rally NZ. However, the event away from the Nissan obviously didn’t hurt him, as he then drove the car in the second round of the national championship in Hawkes Bay, bringing home much needed third place points.

The next event was the Tokoroa car club rally, with Teesdale claiming the ultimate revenge, his first victory in the car. He continued his winning form at the third round of the national championship, the Hamilton Tarmac rally, beating everyone, including fellow 240RS pilot Reg Cook.

His good form continued at the next round of the national championship, the Hella Lights Coromandel event, with Teesdale picking up a second place. This result put him well and truly in contention for the national championship with just one round remaining, the South Canterbury rally. A third place was enough to give Teesdale one of his three New Zealand rally championship titles.

The highly successful season finished on another high, with the newly crowned national champ travelling to the northland rally, netting another second. Armando Eduque came out from the Philippines and ran the car in the 1986 Rally New Zealand, and then took it home for two successful Philippine rally championship campaigns before the car disappeared.

Revival

In April 2004 the car was offered to Auckland rally driver, Rob Wylie. Wylie had campaigned a Datsun P510 for many years with reasonable success, however, he knew it was not really eligible for anything except club rallies. So the decision was made to buy the car and bring it back to New Zealand. When it arrived it was in a much worse state than Rob had imagined, meaning the car spent about a year in Rob’s shed while he sulked about the state of it.

In late 2005 the Silver Fern Rally was announced. The car was slowly progressing until Rob heard about the event. It sounded like something he would be keen on, so he had a discussion with his team and the decision was made to work hard at the car to try and have it ready for the marathon event. One of the first things on the list was to replace the alloy cage it was originally built with. This was replaced by a steel item at By’gone Autos.

With just a few weeks to go it was touch and go whether the car would be ready for the event. With a lot of hard work it was ready for a shakedown run one day before the team planned to leave for the top of the south island.

Meanwhile, during the weeks prior to the event the boys at Boat Haulage, Rob’s business, had made a copy of the route map, and for just $2 people could put a drawing pin in the map for where they thought Rob might get to. He was flattered by the amount of pins stuck in Blenheim, as the event finished there, however most involved in the sweepstake were interested in the Blenheim start ramp!

And they were nearly right, too. The prologue was the first competitive run on gravel for the 240RS, and was described by Rob as a shocker. To most, losing a wheel at the end of the prologue stage is bad enough, but Rob was just as upset at being passed by a Porsche. Also noticed was the brake balance, which was not quite to Rob’s liking.

Not a major, except that the balance adjuster wasn’t working. This was discovered after the event to be incorrect assembly by the team in its haste to complete the car for the marathon event.

Also dogging the team for the first two days was a terrible misfire. This, combined with the dry sump belt coming loose, meant that the car was unable to rev above 6000rpm, compared with the usual 8000rpm-plus. However, Rob explained this is not necessarily a bad thing, acting like a traction control system on the slow, rough and snowy west coast roads. These were just the major problems, with other small things being fixed along the route when time allowed.

After the third day, a rest day was allowed by the organisers to let some of the crews rebuild their cars for another three days of punishment. Rob and his team had a long hard day working on the car for all the permitted time. Throughout the event Rob got more and more comfortable with the new car, and the stage times got faster and faster. Before the event Rob had set his sights on a top 20 finish, and that is exactly what he got, 18th overall, 15th of the cars that finished all the stages and seventh in class. Rob described the rally as fantastic event that exceeded his wildest dreams. He also said it was enormously difficult, and the first event he had ever done where he was not worried about his pace, he was just over the moon to finish.

Classic support

With no Silver Fern for 2007, Rob decided to return the car to the national championship, however it now ran in the classic class. He wanted to support this up and coming class, now in its second year, and feels it will continue to grow, especially with the increasing popularity of classic rallying. Rob is surprised how much he enjoys the pre-rally shows, and also being seeded at the front of the field in all other national championship events, something he thought previously was just for stroking egos.

At the first round in Otago, Rob scored a third and a second in the two legs after a battle royal with Mazda RX-3 driver Euan Fuge, although both were blown into the weeds by the pace of Bert Murray in his ex-Allport RX-7. This was also Rob’s first attempt at the famous Otago Classic Rally, rated one of the best in the southern hemisphere. Round two saw Rob pick up a third and a second — both times behind Euan Fuge after Murray broke a gearbox on the second leg.

At the penultimate round in the Hawkes Bay, another battle ensued for second place between Rob and Fuge until the last stage, when one of the links on the four-link system broke, putting Rob out of the rally and title contention with just the final round of the series to run in Nelson at the end of September.

As for next year, decisions have yet to be made, with both the Silver Fern and the national classic Championships on offer. Whatever is decided, it will be great to see this piece of New Zealand rallying history back on the roads again.

Nobody, not even Mazda itself, could have realised the significance of February 9, 1989 and the debut of the original MX-5/Miata at the Chicago Auto Show.

Words Tim Nevinson Photos Quinn Hamill

By the 1980s the writing was on the wall for the traditional roadster. Convertibles had long been considered unsafe, too idiosyncratic, unreliable and too impractical to be driven every day in the modern world. Hot hatches had taken over; they were faster, better handling and more practical than sports cars, so why would anybody bother? Basically, most people had forgotten the feeling of fun from wind-in-the-hair motoring. It was unexpected that the Japanese would make any real headway with their new MX-5, pretty as it was, even though they had produced some great sports cars in the 240Z and RX-7.

Mazda had clearly chosen the Lotus Elan, probably the world’s best compact sports car in concept, as its model — Mazda’s new car took many ideals and styling cues from the Elan, even though it was significantly bigger than the Lotus. By updating the classic formula that had defined fun yet affordable two seat sports cars for decades, Mazda reinvented the concept of a lightweight roadster. When it was launched in 1989, the MX-5 was the first new lightweight, open two-seater to hit the volume market in a decade.

The dawn

When owners, and the press in particular, had driven and lived with the MX-5 for a week or two it dawned on everyone just how much Mazda had achieved — and just how much they were missing by driving cars with a roof. It seemed like a whole new world. Comfortable, easy to use, great handling, economical and, above all, beautifully put together. Convertible motoring could make sense after all. Mazda went to a huge amount of trouble to make the MX-5 look, handle and go like sports car buyers expected it to — with most of the evaluation and development achieved in California, the ultimate home of most European convertibles.

Its engineers worked hard on the handling, making sure the alloy wheels were the lightest possible to reduce unsprung weight; they found out why an MGB made a noise like it did, and how they could replicate it; and developed a folding roof that followed the lead set by the Alfa Romeo Spider, ending up with a system that still has yet to be bettered today.

What stood the MX-5 apart from anything else before or after was that it was designed and developed by a small team of real enthusiasts, a team which was
supported by a huge corporation prepared to turn their enthusiasm and expertise into an unspoiled yet viable quality product. The styling and handling of the MX-5 rekindled new passion amongst sports car enthusiasts, who bought the Mazda in droves. The ease of use opened Mazda’s doors to a completely new set of buyers, not car enthusiasts, but people who realised they could own a fun car without getting their nails dirty, and this was the key market that exploded the sales potential for a small sports car.

Later, Mazda replaced the original 1600cc twin-cam engine with an 1800cc unit — to pacify critics who said the car lacked power — and carried out stiffening in the chassis around the rear axle and transmission tunnel, as well as across the back of the passenger compartment. The original MX-5 was not bad in this respect; the team just found they could make it better.

Record breaker

Having updated the original with an 1800cc engine and a host of improvements in 1998, Mazda finally buckled to pressure to make a MkII version mainly due to changing vehicle legislation and market expectations. Bearing in mind which part of the market most MX-5 buyers were coming from, the designers added creature comforts and safety features, as well as updating the styling by losing the pop up lights and making the shape more bulbous. The changes met the market very well indeed, and sales of the MX-5, or Miata as it has always been known in the USA, continued unabated. The MX-5 was a stunning success. It became the core of club level motor sport in the US, and developed what became the world’s biggest one make owners club.

the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in history

In May 2000, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the Mazda MX-5 as the best-selling two-seat convertible sports car in history, with 531,890 units produced to that date. In April 2005, that was revised to 700,000. Whilst the MkII had more grip, a six-speed gearbox and 1800cc power in most markets, the fabulous ‘oneness’ between the car and an enthusiastic driver had mysteriously disappeared.

Sixteen years later, at the 2005 Salon International de l’Auto in Geneva, the MX-5’s latest iteration was released. Obviously aware of opinion amongst enthusiasts, Mazda’s design team had set about the MkIII development process applying the phrase Jinba Ittai — or ‘rider and horse as one’ in Western terms. The intention was to produce a car so nimble and fun to drive that the driver and car achieve true unity. They knew that in creating a car that was more spacious and included all the new safety requirements, it would naturally be bigger and heavier, so another driving force in the design process was to take every opportunity to lose weight without quality. They did this by making sure every drawing had the weight of the old part and the weight of the new part shown in big letters, and if it was clear that they had not succeeded in beating the old weight, they would try again. As a result, kerb weight for the new six-speed manual with air-conditioning is a svelte 1105kg, just 4kg more than the old model, despite being bigger in every dimension.

Generation three

MX-5 programme manager, Takao Kijima, not only looked ahead to understand how the motoring world’s needs have changed since the original MX-5 was launched, he also looked back to pinpoint what made this Mazda so special in the eyes and hands of car enthusiasts the world over. Key changes for the third-generation MX-5 were a body structure that uses new materials and technologies to trim weight, improve crashworthiness, and increase rigidity. A fresh, contemporary interior and exterior design that celebrated the original MX-5, but provides adequate room for tall occupants, improved their comfort, and enhanced safety were all required.

New from the wheels up — only the side repeater lamps have been carried over — the 2.0-litre, third generation roadster has more power and torque, plus a host of equipment upgrades that include a limited slip differential, 17-inch alloy wheels, cruise control, a six stack CD player, a cloth soft top and tilt adjustable steering. Standard safety features include ABS anti-lock brakes with Electronic Brake Force Distribution, dual front and front side airbags, seatbelt pretensioners and anti whiplash seats.

For the first time the Mazda MX-5 is offered with a six-speed Activematic gearbox complete with steering wheel-mounted gear change paddles. Benefiting from
50:50 weight distribution achieved by moving the engine rearwards by 135mm, New Zealand MX-5s are powered by a 2.0-litre all-alloy engine (the 1.6 and 1.8 had iron blocks) with 118kW, a jump of more than 10 per cent over the superseded model and 188Nm of torque (up 11.9 per cent).

The rear suspension has now changed to a multi-link set-up rather than the previous wishbones. On the outside, the most notable departure from the previous exterior shape is the elimination of the classic Coke bottle shape of the contours, making the doors higher around the passengers.

Competition

The look to me is very successful, particularly the pronounced wheel arches to accommodate the substantially wider wheels — the car looks very athletic. Inside, the cabin offers more hip, shoulder and elbow room and plenty of storage compartments. The folding soft top features a Z-fold design with one centrally located latch handle, which means the top can, theoretically, be raised or lowered without moving from your seat and with one hand.

Crucially what Mazda has now that it didn’t have when it developed the first MX-5, is competitors. It’s a victim of its own success: naturally other volume manufacturers eventually woke up to Mazda’s formula, producing the MGF the Toyota MR-S and the new Pontiac Solstice among others in the same price bracket, and many new convertibles above and below the MX5’s market position which would probably never have appeared without the MX-5’s success. With buyers’ aspirations set on the BMW Z-series, Mazda’s design team had to take these cars into account rather than concentrating on the virtues of older sports cars.

Group test

We assembled a group of MX-5 enthusiasts with every previous model — and a few modified examples — to test the old against the new, and follow the way the car has developed, both to look at and to drive. I had been driving the latest model for a week and had already formed an opinion, having owned two S1 MX-5s myself, but I wanted to do a back-to-back test to check the car’s design progress. Compared to what else is on the new car market today, the new MX-5 is a great product, but has Mazda achieved the Jinba Ittai of the original?

The simple answer is — no! This is surprising, since the programme manager of this MkIII was the ride and handling chief of the original car. The 50:50 weight distribution hasn’t transposed into the great feel and chuckability of the MK1, just as the MkII gave more grip but less feel. The key to the MkIII’s lack of ‘oneness’ with the driver can be found in its steering. Tiny, light movements about the straight-ahead translate into unwanted yaw, making the car nervy and good lines through corners difficult to achieve in one sweep. Lines are similarly difficult to adjust because of the tiny movements required. It’s alright to drive around town, but unrewarding and tiresome on the open road.

The new roof is clever but not as fool-proof as the old one, and takes up a lot of room behind the seats, losing the airy feel and great visibility of the older car, an aspect exacerbated by the higher door sides. Compared to today’s volume cars, the 2006 MX-5 is still an exceptional package. These feelings were pretty much echoed by the other MX- Fivers there on the day, they liked it for what it was, but not as much as their own, older cars.

Judgement day

My favourite was easily Martin Harris’s red Mk1 NZ-new car, the original. Second was David Maughtin’s yellow supercharged Mk1 Eunos Roadster — the power delivery of this car is just what the original needed. There wasn’t much to choose between the power steering of the Red Eunos Mk1 and the original Red NZ-new MX-5 Mk1 — the ratio is quicker on the power-steered Eunos, making oversteer adjustments easier and allowing quicker driver response, but the feel and feedback aren’t as good as the original.

Mazdaspeed’s modifications on the yellow car are worthwhile for handling, but not such a good ride compromise.The orange turbocharged Mk1 car gave lunatic top-end performance but at the expense of refinement. The interior of the green MkII is the nicest, although I’m not convinced by its 1800cc engine. The performance improvement is definitely there, but at the expense of refinement and rev-ability.

As before Mazda has met the market well with the 2006 MX-5. A glance at the specifications show improvements in nearly every material specification, but the pureness and handling virtue of the original, the Jinba Ittai, is less apparent. My perfect MX-5? The latest lightweight 2.0-litre engine, supercharged, and a tan and wood interior all fitted into the original car — with AC from the Eunos and with an optional hardtop for winter.

Mazda MX-5 1989-2006

* same as previous model

Words Eoin Young Photos Terry Marshall

Carroll Shelby coined the recipe when he decided to mate a big American Ford V8 engine to a demure British AC sports chassis to create the Cobra. Dave McQueen is a Shelby disciple. He spent 25 years in South Africa and built himself a replica Cobra, but back home in Christchurch he decided to start again, this time using a Mazda MX-5 for the shoehorn power transplant

The little black hardtop Mazda disguises the fact that there are twice the number of horses itching to spin the rear wheels as the MX-5 makers intended. The 5.0-litre Mustang V8 is bog standard, but it still pumps out 172kW or 230bhp, compared with the car’s original 1600cc four-cylinder powerplant which gave 87kW (116bhp) at 6500rpm.

The story started when Dave put his hand up at the Turner’s auction house in Christchurch on March 2, 2001, and bought himself a 1992 Eunos Roadster with 105,000 clicks on the clock. That was the easy bit. A Mazda MX-V8 is not a new concept, but it was for Dave. He had read engine-swap articles in various motoring magazines, so he was aware of what was required. First item on his shopping list was a 5.0-litre HO Ford Mustang V8, to which he would mate a Toyota Supra W55 gearbox feeding through a Ford 302 flywheel and pressure plate, with a Supra clutch plate, a slave cylinder from an XY Ford Falcon with a bell-housing made up by Conversion Components in Waihi, and a 2.73:1 Ford Thunderbird IRS diff from Charlton Imports at Gore.

Daredevil

Getting off the line is a careful operation. I was going to say delicate, but delicate isn’t a word that comes to mind when you’re sitting behind a well-muscled package like this. You need a clutch thigh like Dan Carter, and some care to mate the throttle with the feed-in. After that it’s just a matter of keeping within the speed limit.
It’s a car that will dare you, but it has amazing balance. Installing the V8 meant a re-think all round the car. The rear springs were moved to the front, and heavier rear springs were made up with uprated sway bars front and rear. Hubs were custom-made by Damin Cotter to accept RX-7 Batman bearings, callipers and rotors, bolted to standard MX-5 wishbones.

It is the ultimate MX-5, very much a Q-car, a  tidy little two-seater with disguised performance. Only the woofle of the V8 gives the game away

Mazda parts came from Mark at Mazline in Christchurch. All the electrical work was done by Ashley Mulholland, who also installed the Link Computer. The headers and stainless steel exhaust system were created by Paul Gibbs at PC Exhausts. The hand-stitched trim was done by Brendan at Canterbury Upholsterers, and the polished black body finish came from Holland Panel and Paint at Rolleston.

The result is a tidy black gem, sitting squat with wider wheels in elegantly flared arches. At the steering wheel it’s standard MX-5, but the view out front is quite different. A power bulge covers the V8 headers, with louvres to aid under-bonnet cooling. The nose air intake has been re-shaped and enlarged, with a stylised Mazda emblem as a centrepiece to the new grille.

In this form it is the ultimate MX-5, very much a Q-car, a tidy little two-seater with disguised performance. Only the woofle of the V8 gives the game away. Twice the power means half the work, and on a trip the Mazda turns in around 10.1l/100km (28mpg). Dave’s personal registration number is a wonderful salute to the project — MX5000.

Shelby’s point of view

I know it’s fashionable to salivate over Shelby Cobras, either original (rare on our roads) or replicated, but I have never been able to see the point. This may have come from a trip with Tom Warth — then of Motorbooks — in the States, when he collected me in a very original Cobra off a London flight in the middle of the USA. We seemed to drive for what seemed like hours in furnace heat, me trying to cope with sudden dehydration (fluid levels plummeting after the non-stop intake on the long flight), and nursing my suitcase on my knees since there was no luggage room.

Years later I had lunch with Carroll Shelby in a little Italian restaurant in the village of Villars, at the top of the Ollon-Villars hill climb in Switzerland. Lunch lasted until somewhere south of 5pm, and by now I was brave enough to tell Carroll that I couldn’t understand why punters paid so much for his Cobras, because I thought they were, er, very basic forms of transport. He guffawed and, rather to my surprise, said that he agreed with me. He thought the Sunbeam Tiger was a much better road car — and that’s when I became aware that it was Shelby who had also created the Sunbeam Tiger, transplanting the modest Rootes four-cylinder with a V8.

It has gone into the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful sports car ever built, with sales soaring beyond any car-maker’s imagination

It should have been a Brit

Many regard the MX-5 as the MG the Brits didn’t build. MG created the idea of a small, affordable sports car and spawned generations of sports car enthusiasts around the world, but it quite simply failed to follow up. Mazda did. And now it has gone into the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful sports car ever built, with sales soaring beyond any car-maker’s imagination since its first appearance in 1989. It has been sold as the MX-5, Miata or Eunos — depending on which part of the world you’re buying it in.

Auckland motoring scribe Donn Anderson loaned me his brand-new MX-5 back in 1990, and I was captivated. I had to own one, and when I got back to Surrey I invested in an MX-5. My friends thought I had lost all reason. They may have been right.

When I was researching background for this feature on the McQueen MX-V8 I visited Fazazz, in Christchurch, and turned up a copy of a volume of collected road tests put together by Unique Motor Books in the UK. To my total surprise, and a sliver of pride, I realised that the first two MX-5 features had been written by me in Autocar in the UK in 1990 and 1991. The articles charted the coming and the going of my MX-5, and I shamelessly quote my own words, 15 years and a lot of living down the track.

The 1990 report was sub-headed “Columnist Eoin Young, freshly Mazda MX-5 mounted, is smiling all the way to the Barley Mow.” The reference is to the period public house that was almost my second home in the village of West Horsley in Surrey.

“Some of my Formula 1 journalistic mates held a sweepstake over dinner at the Phoenix GP on how long I would keep my Mazda MX-5. Shortest bet was two weeks. I have this tendency towards fickleness in motor cars — recent loves have been as varied as a pair of 4×4 Sierras, a Scorpio and a couple of 325 BMWs — but after five weeks and 1400 miles, my red MX-5 and I are hitting it off well.

“It’s my first Japanese car and I’m smitten, as most new owners are, with the way everything works and fits. The MX-5 might have been cut to my size by a sort of Japanese Jermyn Street motor car shirt-maker. The arms are just the right length. Everything falls to hand, as they used to say. As opposed to falling off.

“The gearshift is an on-going delight. I’d like to shake the hand of the Autocar tester who likened it to a rifle-bolt because that’s exactly the sensation — the same wrist-flicking positive action.

“The main complaint from other owners had been a lack of power and more would be pleasant for that urgent bit of overtaking, but for the moment I’m resisting the turbo conversion.
“I think I like its looks, but I can’t really tell how I look to others because I’ve only seen two other MX-5s in the distance. They’re still scarce enough in my corner of Surrey that we MX-5 owners wave to each other¦”

Summer Blues

A year later, 1992, and I was writing again in Autocar under the headline Summer Blues: “’Why did you sell it?’ That’s the question everyone asks, except those who know me best.

They all wondered why I bought the MX-5 in the first place, so they are not at all surprised that I have sold it after 4000 miles [6437km] and four months. One version of my story is that I suddenly needed the money more than I needed a sports car. Another version is that it was too small.

“’But it was too small when you bought it,’ protests colleague Nigel Roebuck. ‘You didn’t expect it to grow afterwards, did you?’ Very amusing¦

“Then there was the ego problem and the remarks about so many MX-5s being driven by 50-year-olds. Is it the second-time-round search for the sunshine and excitement of a sports car? At the Barley Mow it was referred to from Day One as The Hairdresser’s Car. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. The pub was the one trip that was supposed to be fun, travelling with the top down on a Sunday lunchtime when there wasn’t a grand prix.

The 5.0-litre Mustang V8 pumps out 172kW compared with the car’s original, 87kW 1600cc four-cylinder powerplant

“The third version of ‘why I sold it’ is that I finally had to admit that it didn’t have enough power. Not that I want to set any lap records round the M25, or cut my time to Silverstone by 10 minutes. Just that for the second time I was trying to pass a lorry on a country road with what I thought was loads of time to get by — then realised that I couldn’t because the car had run out of puff. The first time I thought I’d just misjudged the move; the second time I knew there simply wasn’t enough power in hand for the way I drive¦”

Dave McQueen has solved that problem for good with his sleek, black MX-5000 hardtop!

Acknowledgements

Dave McQueen would like to thank all those who entered into the spirit of the MX-5000 project by enthusiastically contributing their skills, services and encouragement above and beyond the call of duty.

You might be forgiven for thinking that we’re continuing our story on the origins of the Triumph Dolomite when you look at the photos here — but mechanically, and geographically, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

The front looks uncannily like the early Triumph 2000 sedan, and the treatment of the rear cabin is near identical to the Triumph 1300. However, whilst our featured car is powered by a 1300cc engine, it is at the opposite end to a Triumph’s, and owes more to Renault than it does to any British manufacturer.

Not from the established British or French automotive empires in the 1960s, this European-looking sedan comes from a Japanese car industry at the start of an export drive that would later become an onslaught. The manufacturer of this handsome little car no longer exists as a car brand, but still operates; under the massive Toyota combine making trucks and buses which are very familiar to us here in New Zealand — Hino.

Michelotti

The look is indisputably Michelotti of Italy, and if you are thinking this is just another Japanese copy, then the period of August 1961 should be of interest, as that was when the specification was sent to Michelotti from Hino Motors in Japan. Triumph 1300 styling was not requested until a year later.

Did either Triumph or Hino know about the similarity in designs that Michelotti was selling to them?

Did either of the manufacturers know about the similarity in designs that Michelotti was selling, and if they did, did they care, or was it too late when they found out? We will probably never know, but in the autumn of 1964 any Triumph representatives at the annual Tokyo Show would have had quite a rude awakening. The Hino Contessa 1300 was announced at that show, and soon after one went on to Paris for publicity shots and an investigation into the European market. Paris may have been chosen as most of the small car engineering Hino had learned was from constructing Renault 4CV kits between 1953 and 1961. Hino went from being a constructor of kits to a supplier of cars within five years.

Middle East

Triumph was a past master at CKD manufacture; that is providing countries with tariffs on imported goods with kits to assemble the cars themselves, just as in New Zealand until recently. When Triumph approached Autocars of Israel to assemble its Triumph 1300 in 1965, it was told that would be fine as long as it could put a 1500cc engine in it because Autocars was already assembling the Japanese Hino Contessa 1300s — indeed they were being used as police cars!

Triumph was able to do the 1500 conversion, so the Israeli company had a range of products that had a real family look to them, but the engineering of which could not be more different — and we thought Triumph’s front-drive rear-drive saga was confusing for the public! In 1970, when manufacture of the Contessa discontinued, Triumph was allowed to supply kits to Israel with the standard 1300cc motor.

Mr Uchida of Hino was also successful in convincing NZ company, Campbell Motors, to buy Hino Contessa kits. In February 1966 an arrangement was made to supply 300 Contessa kits between March and June, with a target of 300 cars per year, and a few fully built up cars were brought in to start with. Mark Webster takes up the story in his book Assembly:

Campbell Motors

“Hugo Bedford and Blair Webster, the young guns at Campbell Motors, knew Lance Moller and how positive his experience with Isuzu had been from his trip the year before, so they headed off to Japan together, despite criticism from the older principals in the company. They also had the foresight to see that Japan was becoming a powerhouse. “We wanted a Japanese franchise. Our chairman, Mr Elliot Bedford, was 100 per cent against our going. ‘Let’s get on with Peugeot’. I wouldn’t call my uncle small-minded, but I mean, he didn’t focus very far ahead, but we were just youngsters and we were as keen as mustard.

” Hugo and Blair only had one month in Japan — they went to Mitsubishi, having spoken to the Mitsubishi agent in Auckland — and everyone else they could think of. Toyota was already being imported CBU to New Zealand by a consortium consisting of Wrightsons, Fletchers and Cable Price. Getting desperate and with only a few days to go, they fetched up at Hino Motor and managed to get the franchise for the Hino Contessa, a smart rear-engined car reminiscent of Italian designs (Hugo’s wife had one of only three Hino Contessa coupes in New Zealand, and Hugo remembers the Contessa as a “wonderful car”).

In February 1966 an arrangement was made to supply 300 Contessa kits between March and June, with a target of 300 cars per year

There were plans to assemble the Hino in the near future, at the rate of 300 per year, and in fact the first Hino Contessa came off the line on the July 22. Hugo drove all the Japanese Hino VIPs and their wives from Auckland to Thames for the launch. All the Japanese women arrived wearing kimonos and it was freezing, so Hugo’s wife Helen got coats for them, which dwarfed them utterly. When Mr Uchida, head of Hino Motor, arrived in Thames, he was quite surprised to see an enormous Japanese battle flag flying, which young Charles Webster had borrowed from the Thames Library. This flag had been banned in Japan since 1945.

“Aah, many years I don’t see!” said Mr Uchida, while embarrassed Campbell’s staff tried desperately to stop the press getting it in their photographs. President of Hino Motor Corporation, Mr Uchida, here to witness the first Contessa 1300s coming off the Thames Campbell Industries line, held several press conferences on his New Zealand visit. In them he predicted that Japanese cars would have 10 to 15 per cent of the New Zealand market by 1971.

“In 1966, the Japanese share of the market had been only half a percent. Mr Uchida went to Wellington after the Hino launch to ask for a doubling of the 300 per year assembly license for his car, making the point that the minimum economic assembly figure for his company in New Zealand was 500 a year.”
(Excerpt from Assembly — Mark Webster’s book on the local industry, available mail order from NZCC.)

The final Contessa

This was all to prove academic, as whilst Mr Uchida was to prove accurate in his forecasts, it would not be with Hino products, good as they were. The Toyota motor company was competing heavily with Hino Truck division in Japan, so the two companies came to an agreement which was basically that so long as Hino stopped competing with Toyota cars, Toyota would stop competing with Hino trucks. The result was that Hino ceased production of the Contessa quite smartly. Toyota and Hino eventually merged, but not until quite recently.

The agreement in Japan meant that New Zealand was the last place to build Hino motor cars. The ever-gentlemanly Mr Uchida came over personally to break the news to Hugo at Campbell Imports; as a thank you, Mr Uchida helped smooth the way for Toyota assembly at Thames. No doubt stung by the turn of events in Japan, and showing Campbell Motors goodwill, the Japanese Hino agent gave Campbell the introductions it needed to build Toyotas. Whilst the ‘shovel front’ Corona was already being manufactured in Christchurch, Corolla could replace the Hino in Thames, so Consolidated Motors was formed to sell all Toyota models built by the Consortium in Christchurch and Thames.

Rare

Domestic production of the Hino Contessa in Japan only lasted just over 30 months from mid 1964, and now there are only 105 examples left in Japan. Of all the cars assembled at Thames during 1966-’68 in New Zealand (and we assume that is 600, two years’ supply, as it is difficult to separate them from other cars in Campbell’s records) there are now only four registered in New Zealand; one each in Hamilton, Tauranga and Thames, all 1967 models, and one 1968 car in Whangarei. Of the 247 Contessas landed fully built up in Australia, none are known to exist there now, but lately New Zealand has become an exporter of old Contessas both to Australia, and back to Japan.

On the road

We drove the Hamilton car belonging to Keith Clausen, who has a weakness for very unusual, but technically worthy motor cars. He bought his in October 2002 with three owners and 80,000km on the clock. Keith’s car cost £860 new, which is interesting because the official retail in 1965 was over £1000. Everyone I have told about this project has said, “Oh I remember those, so-and—so’s Mum had one.” The family of our everyday classic editor, Mark Webster, owned one when Mark was a kid, and were very proud of it.

Domestic production of the Hino Contessa in Japan only lasted just over 30 months from mid 1964, and now there are only 105 examples left in Japan

The Contessa seemed to fill a niche for a high quality second car. Looking at the pricing, it was not cheap so quality would have been expected, and by all accounts it was provided, although apparently they were prone to overheat, often due to water pump issues. Keith Clausen’s example was a nice car to drive, with steering and gear change being light and precise. It was quiet and easy to place, simply because of its squared-off shape and large window area.

We didn’t think it was appropriate to go testing the ultimate handling, but suffice it to say that it has a comfortable ride and at sensible speeds it cornered quite nicely, and although my experience of similar cars is limited to Skodas, it seemed quiet and refined to me. Whilst the ohv crossflow engine and drivetrain is entirely Hino’s design, it would certainly be interesting to try it alongside the Renault which influenced Hino’s engineeers.

Hino

Originally T G E or Gasuden, established in 1910, Tokyo Gas and Electric went into automotive manufacture in 1917 using a completely new factory in Omori.
Car manufacture disappeared back to Tokyo after a number of mergers involving Hitachi and what would become Isuzu.
In 1942 former Gasuden employees built the Hino plant and independently established Hino Heavy Industry, making trucks and buses.
In 1953 Hino started assembling CKD Renault 4CVs, and at the end of the 1950s, its own 900cc sedan. After the Contessa quite a few projects were started, but no more production cars. The company is nowadays a very powerful player in the truck and bus sector. Satoshi Ezawa, who worked for the car manufacturing operation, is a keen historian of the marque. His website is www.hinosamurai.org.

Motorsport

Mr Uchida was aware that, outside Japan, motor sport sold cars, so he entered Erik Carlsson in the Safari Rally in a Hino. Hino was similarly ambitious with its export drive to the USA. Noting that racing on the west coast had an impact on sales, it formed Team Samurai with Peter Brock to promote the Contessa at the beginning of 1966. Brock — with NZ’s John Ohlsen — had been instrumental in the development of the Shelby Daytona Cobra. As well as the very pretty Hino Contessa coupe that was raced, some fabulous-looking prototype sports cars were made, but the Toyota take-over shut it all down. Once again the honourable Hino employees, in this case Mr Miyako, introduced BRE (Brock Racing Enterprises) to Toyota and Nissan — leading to Brock and Bob Sharp getting works contracts to race the 240Z and 510 sedan.

1967 Hino Contessa

Engine: Rear-mounted four-cylinder
Capacity: 1251cc
Valves: ohv
Max power: 55bhp (41kW)
Max torque: 70lb/ft (95Nm)
Transmission: Four-speed manual
Steering: Helical rack and pinion
Suspension: Front: torsion bar, rear: coil springs and single radius arm
Brakes: Drum/drum
Tyres: 5.60×13

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4150mm
Width: 1530mm
Height: 1390mm
Wheelbase: 2280mm

PERFORMANCE

Max speed: 81mph (130kph)

NZ-Assembled New Car Prices, 1965

Campbell Motors Hino Contessa – £1050
Renault R8 1100 (contract assembled) – £1075
Dominion Motors Morris 1100 – £938
Austin 1100 – £945
Vauxhall Viva de luxe – £832
Simca 1000 saloon – £959
Volkswagen 1200 – £915
Triumph Herald – £918
Reprinted from Assembly by Mark Webster

Words Tim Nevinson | Photos: Jared Clark